India is planning to launch a satellite capable of providing direct communication links to mobile handsets in three years, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Tuesday. The move aims at making satellite phone usage cheaper and accessible to the remotest parts of the country, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) declared Monday. "We plan to provide satellite connectivity using a special bandwidth," ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair told space agency chiefs attending the International Aeronautical Congress (IAC) in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.
The ISRO, he said, was designing an experimental satellite — GSAT-6 — for the purpose. "It will make access cheaper with connectivity even in remote areas."
The GSAT-6 will be launched by the indigenous GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) and deployed in the geo-stationary orbit at 36,000 km from earth by 2010.
"A subscriber will be able to connect his or her GSM phone when signals from the mobile service provider fail or do not reach by automatically switching over to the satellite link," PTI quoted ISRO scientific secretary Bhaskara Narayana as saying.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
