MUMBAI:Thailand's Shin Satellite PLc announced yesterday that India's Department of Space (DoS) has extended the existing transponder leasing contract for seven C-band transponders on the Thaicom-3 Satellite.
With this renewal, the total number of transponders leased by DOS remains the same at 10 transponders, a Shin Sat release says.
The DoS has been leasing these C-band transponders on Thaicom-3 Satellite since 1998 to facilitate many telecom infrastructure projects and broadcasting. This is the seventh time that Shin Satellite's Leasing Contract for the seven transponders with DoS has been renewed. Throughout this period, DoS has expanded and endorsed many projects for the telecommunication infrastructure in the country. Despite the slowdown of the telecom industry around the world, there is still a demand for satellite bandwidth capacity in the Indian market that DoS has to fulfill.
Other than the DoS, Shin Satellite's customers in India and the subcontinent include Star India, Star Vijay, RAJ TV, ETC Music, ETC Punjabi, TMG, SS Music, India Vision, Punjab Today, Sanskar, Tara, ATN Bangla (Bangladesh), and TVM (Maldives). The Thaicom platform has more than 20 Indian channels on it, the release says.
Besides these broadcasting customers, Shin Satellite is working with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an autonomous body of the Ministry of Information Technology (MIT), to provide Internet Backbone services to promote and support India's very successful software industries.
Shin Satellite is also partnering with main Indian Internet gateway Videsh Sanghar Nigam Limited (VSNL) to jointly provide broadcasting and uplinking services to Indian satellite television channels via the Thaicom satellite. In addition to this, both STPI and VSNL will deploy the first generation of iPSTAR broadband satellite gateway and terminals to provide Internet and other telecom services.
Shin Sat is 51-per cent owned by Thailand's largest telecom conglomerate, Shin Corp, founded by the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
India is Shin Sat's largest foreign market.
