NEW DELHI, NOV 11: If you think cellular phones are the in thing, hold on, you are far behind the times. Satellite phones have taken over as the new status symbol in the corridors of power. At least four Cabinet ministers -- Mulayam Singh Yadav, C M Ibrahim, Ram Vilas Paswan and Beni Prasad Verma -- and half-a-dozen chief ministers own the new satellite phones.

Among the chief ministers, techno-savvy Chandrababu Naidu was the first to acquire this phone, much before the government formally cleared a policy in this regard earlier last month. Jammu & Kashmir's Farooq Abdullah, Uttar Pradesh's Kalyan Singh and Assam's Prafulla Kumar Mahanta have followed him to join the satellite club.

These phones are portable gadgets, the size of a laptop computer, and can provide uninterrupted communication services from the remotest corner in the country. It can also receive calls on the same number anywhere it is carried unlike cell-phones which have not yet reached several States.

None of these ministers acquired these phones personally -- their ministries applied for them. Ministries of Finance, Railways and Defence recently obtained clearance from the Department of Telcommunications (DoT) and have acquired the gizmos.

Left-leaning politicians also do not seem to be allergic to the techno-toy. DoT sources say that preliminary enquiries about satellite phones have been made on behalf of West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, though the DoT has yet to receive a formal application.

According to the new VVIP policy which was recently cleared by the government, cabinet ministers, chief ministers and government departments are allowed to apply to the DoT for such phones.

These phones are then connected through the Arvi earth station, near Pune, of the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. Each of the satellite phone terminals, called the mini-M, costs anything between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, and have standard call charges equivalent to $ 2 to $ 3 per minute, irrespective of the distance, within the country or outside. The DoT's own pilot project with INMARSAT has not yet taken off.

And, as in the case of other types of phones, security agencies have expressed their reservations about monitoring satellite phones. The DoT has already taken on the Union Home Ministry over the proposal to launch these services on a commercial basis.

While the security agencies -- the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Intelligence Bureau -- have expressed severe reservations, the DoT has been pressing for an early commercial launch.

Home Ministry sources say, the security agencies have no objection to the regular INMARSAT terminals as they are larger and hence not portable. It is the commercial use of the mini-Ms which has elicited an absolute refusal from the agencies.

However, the DoT's intelligence reports point out that around 200 such phones have been smuggled into the country. Says a senior DoT official: ``If the phones were freely available, people would approach the DoT for connections and we could build up an adequate data base to satisfy the needs of the security agencies. We hope the Home Ministry will soon address thisissue.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.