In a historic first, the Indian space regulating agency, IN-SPACe, has issued an ‘Announcement of opportunity’ (AO) inviting non-government entities (NGEs) to build, launch and use a telecommunications satellite. 

“The objective of this AO is to identify and enable the eligible NGEs to make use of unutilised ITU Filing,” IN-SPACe said in the AO. ‘Unutilised ITU filing’ refers to a filing made by India’s space agency, ISRO, to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), for registering a satellite (or a satellite network). The filing process includes providing detailed technical information about the satellite, its intended orbital position and frequencies. The idea is to coordinate the use of orbital slots and frequencies to avoid interference between satellites. 

For the present AO, the ITU filed, ‘INSAT-KA89ER’, has sought uplink frequencies of 21 GHz to 31 GHz and downlink frequencies of 17.7 GHz to 21.2 GHz. 

Dr PK Jain, Director- Programme Management and Authorisation, told businessline this was the first time that NGEs were invited to build, launch and operate their satellite. NGEs will submit technical and price bids and the best bidder will get the opportunity. Jain stressed that after getting the opportunity the NGE would still have a lot of work to do, in terms of frequency coordination. The AO announcement says that “the beneficiary shall be responsible for actions such as further coordination activity with foreign operators/administrations, modification filings, notification/due diligence filing, etc, if any, and as applicable.” 

Further, the actual operating frequencies would also depend upon the extant National Frequency Allocation Plan. “It is also to be noted that the actual frequencies used for realization, establishment and operations of the intended communication satellite shall be in accordance with the extant National Frequency Allocation Plan, extant ITU Radio Regulations and approval/wireless operating license (WoL) from WPC wing of DoT,” the AO notification says. 

Seed fund for blue economy 

This AO for building a telecom satellite comes close on the heels of another AO, for blue economy. Under the AO, IN-SPACe announced the setting up of a seed fund “to provide financial support and expert mentorship and resources to help entrepreneurs bring their ideas to market.” The idea is to support projects that address key challenges in the blue economy, such as improving ocean monitoring and mapping, enhancing maritime surveillance and supporting disaster response efforts in coastal communities, the AO notification said. It invited proposals from startups and micro and small enterprises who may have innovative ideas for using space technology to support the blue economy. 

Space technology is integral to the sustainable development of the blue economy, providing tools and data for efficient management of marine resources, environmental conservation, maritime safety and climate resilience. 

Some of the areas highlighted by the AO include fisheries (including prevention of illegal or over-the-quota fishing), marine biology, communications, shipping, surveillance, oceanography and weather.