R H Patil, Managing Director of the NSE, told The Indian Express that there was absolutely no damage to its transponders. The NSE trading network is dependent on the two transponders it has leased on Insat 2B. However, some brokers last week reduced their business exposure, following the warning from NSE. The Bombay Stock Exchange also functioned normally, with outstation brokers using the satellite link reporting business as usual.

The country's dominant provider of Internet services, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, said telecommunications and Internet services were undisturbed. Corporate houses using VSNL facilities also did not report any problems, according to VSNL.Deputy General Manager, operations, I P Singh, said the probability of an impact on its satellites (chiefly in the Indian Ocean Rim) was only 0.02 per cent. This was further reduced by taking precautions like tilting its solar panels (largest in size and hence most likely to be affected) by 10 to 12 degrees. Control circuitry was also switched off. ``No satellite was affected,'' Singh asserted.

Iridium, which has the largest satellite constellation in space, also suffered no damage to its $ 5.5 billion network. Iridium India's Jaydev Raja said, ``I have checked with my gateway -- to my knowledge none of our satellites have been affected.'' He admitted there was concern, but the risk was lesser because its satellites were closest to earth on the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) level, as compared to geo-stationary earth orbit satellites like Insat 2B.

However, the company was well-prepared for such eventualities and had a spare in each of the six planes it had satellites orbiting in, he said. Each of these satellitesmoved round the earth in 100 minutes and in the event of a failure, another satellite could easily take its place. Depending on the type of damage, satellites can also be salvaged with software upgrades while they are in orbit.

Star TV said that none of its channels were affected. ``There was always a chance...,'' said a senior executive, ``but thankfully, everything is quite safe.'' The channel, which has four transponders each on Asiasat 1 and Asiasat 2, kept a 1 am to 4 am vigil on its network. Viewers reported ESPN flashed a message at around 1.30 am, that transmission was disturbed due to technical faults. ESPN could not be contacted for comments, either in Delhi or Singapore.