ISRO rides DTH boom in India, to launch 24 transponders

Riding the wave of Direct to Home (DTH) boom in India, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will be launching 24 transponders on its telecommunication satellite INSAT-4B scheduled for launch by an Ariane rocket from Kourou in French Guiana on Saturday.

The new transponders will vastly improve the DTH and other telecommunication services across the country. The 24 new transponders will add to the existing 175 transponders already in the orbit, taking their total strength to 199.

ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said all the 199 transponders had been fully booked. “Before the launch itself, most of the capacity has been allotted to various users. There is a shortage of 12 transponders”, he said.

With a view to meeting the shortage of transponders, ISRO is planning to launch INSAT-4CR, a replacement for INSAT-4C, which was lost, from Sriharikota in India in the middle of 2007. “With that, we will be able to meet our immediate requirement for DTH transponders”, he said.

The demand for transponders had grown in the wake of DTH’s growing popularity across the country, particularly in the metros.

The transponders receive signals, translate their frequency and amplify them before re-transmitting them to earth. The re-transmitted signal can be accessed anywhere in India, according to ISRO officials. Each transponder covers thousands of television sets.

The transponders are used for communication services other than television also. “All the transponders have been booked by various operators even before the launch”, officials said.

ISRO is expected to rake in revenue of about Rs 12.5 billion. “Each transponder is sold for close to $ one million every year”, officials said. The communication satellite will have a life-span on 12 years.

The development cost of INSAT-4B, primarily aimed at DTH applications, is around Rs 2.1 billion, while the launch cost charged by European Space Consortium Arianespace is Rs 2.2 billion. The insurance cost is around Rs 600 million.
Identical to INSAT-4A, the communication satellite INSAT-4B will carry 12-Ku and 12-C band transponders. The 3025-kg spacecraft is slated to be launched by Ariane 5 rocket from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana early on Saturday.