The parliamentary standing committee on information technology has reportedly started its final deliberations on the Communications Convergence Bill.
The standing committee, headed by veteran parliamentarian Somnath Chatterjee, went into meetings yesterday and is expected to complete the job of going over the bill with a fine tooth comb today, reports state.

The Convergence Bill calls for the setting up of a common regulatory authority for information technology, communications and broadcasting. It provides for the setting up of a super-regulator - the Communication Commission of India (CCI) - converging the existing regulatory authorities like the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) into the new entity.

The bill also seeks to change the licensing regime and limit the number of license categories to five ? network infrastructure facilities, networking services, network application services, content application services and value-added network application services. It is still not clear how the existing licencees will be accommodated in the new regime.

Once the standing committee vets the bill, it will be forwarded for debate to the Lok Sabha (lower house of Parliament).

MGM Networks, a unit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., has forged an alliance with the Orbit Satellite Television And Radio Network. A digital, 24-hour MGM-branded movie channel will be launched in the Middle East region. The new channel represents the 15th foreign channel in which MGM holds an equity interest.
Orbit claims to be the Middle East‘s leading digital satellite platform. The launch is expected to take place in March. The MGM Movie Channel will initially be available on Orbit‘s premium channel tier through a digital satellite feed across the Middle East and North Africa. The channel will show MGM blockbuster‘s and other critically acclaimed films.

In India MGM already has a tie-up with the Zee Network. Zee Movies hived its English movie channel into a separate 70:30 joint venture in September 2000 where Zee held the majority stake. Zee Movies was co-branded and relaunched as Zee-MGM Movie Channel in October 2000.

MGM Networks executive V-P Bruce Tuchman said about the deal with Orbit: "This new channel venture clearly underscores the continued demand for our content abroad, in a key, growing multichannel television market, and marks the latest expansion of MGM-branded channels."

The Orbit Satellite Television and Radio Network claims to be the world‘s first fully digital, multi-channel, multi-lingual, pay-television service. Orbit provides original Arabic and international English language entertainment channels.

Even as the satellite launch sector saw a global recession in 2001, Arianespace took credit for maintaining a strong lead in the commercial space transportation segment.

While the year saw a 30 per cent reduction in the number of satellite launches, with 58 successful launches as against 82 in 2000, Arianespace managed to win 13 launch service contracts out of a total 25 signed worldwide during the year. The company performed eight launches that carried 11 of the 16 geostationary satellites that competed for a commercial launch in 2001.

Although the Ariane 5 launch on 12 July 2001 left the payload, Artemis and BSat 2b, in useless orbits, Artemis is expected to be able to reach geostationary orbit on its own while BSat 2b was declared a total loss.

The company is however upbeat, claiming that it ended 2001 on a strong note, signing contracts to launch satellites for Orbital Sciences Corp of the US and the European operator Eutelsat. Orbital Sciences Corp‘s order is for the launch of BSAT-2C on behalf of the Japanese operator B-SAT. B-SAT2C is a follow-on to B-SAT2A successfully lofted by Arianespace in March 2001, and the new 1,300-kg. spacecraft will feature 4 Ku-band transponders.

As of 7 January, Arianespace‘s backlog stands at 51 payloads to be launched, including nine ATV missions for the International Space Station. The year just concluded saw Arianespace make progress on the technical and industrial fronts, claims the company. The new S5 payload process complex was inaugurated at the Ariane launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, providing Arianespace with the most modern facility of its kind in the world. This massive satellite checkout and processing centre is sized to handle spacecraft for up to four launch campaigns simultaneously.

The upgradation of the Ariane 5 launch facilities will boost Ariane 5‘s payload capacity to 10 metric tons on missions to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).

The service entry of the ESC-A cryogenic upper stage is also