Satellite technology utilization for Rural and Urban India

S. Pal*DFIETE & V. S. Rao**FIETE

Key words: satellite communication, satellite technology for rural India, remote
sensing.

ABSTRACT:

Communication capabilities in various forms provided by the modern spacecraft are

bridging the gap between modernized cities and backward rural villages. The remote
sensing satellites are equally helping rural India by providing useful information to
increase farm yield, fish catching and also helping to save lot of lives by disaster
warning and weather forecasting. This paper describes the utilization of the satellite
technology in various forms for Indian masses particularly rural India..

INTRODUCTION:

The society having a better and quicker means of communications is considered to be an

advanced and forward looking society. Most of our country’s population in the past was
not served by the telephone and television networks that so greatly influence cities
and western societies. There is a great influence of present day fast evolving technologies
particularly the digital techniques on the development of the society. It includes present day
computers and Satellite Communication. Present day technological tools support and
complement each other to complete the total communication scenario. Satellites are
perceived largely as a means to reach isolated places. Because of the broadcasting
nature of the satellites, a signal sent up to the satellite comes down everywhere over a
wide area, thus providing connectivity to the inaccessible parts of the country.
Satellites bring the television to the homes even in remote villages. Television is an
extremely powerful medium for education, literacy rate in rural areas can be improved
through tele-education services based on satellite technology. Being a tropical
country with long coast line, natural disasters often knock at the country and the rural
people are often the victims. Terrestrial links and transport systems cripple very
often. Satellites come to the rescue in such events for disaster management, which
requires real time decision making and action.

The introduction of space communication and the present era of information

technology has changed the current scenario and we have seen the third technological
revolution (information + communication = Information Technology) in the last
decade of the last century. The present era is called the IT era. The technological
evolutions which have taken place in the last century are simply beyond one's
imagination. Many technological reversals have been seen, like the telephone which
should have been on the wired network has become wireless while the TV which was
wireless, works on cable.

* Out Standing Scientist/ Program Director, SATNAV, Deputy Director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Air
port Road, Bangalore-560 017, India. (pal_surendra@hotmail.com)
** Group Head, Communication Systems Group, ISRO Satellite Centre,
Air port Road, Bangalore-560 017, India. (vsrao@isac.gov.in)

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Many individual spheres of working have become almost universal, like education has
come to the drawing room from school and colleges, sectors like banking, medicines,
hospitals etc which were location specific are available on net.

With the development of space technology, time and distance have lost their
conventional meaning, thereby permitting men and women all over the world to share
their experiences, frustrations and successes with great ease. Sophisticated and
expensive medical treatment has been made reachable to those underprivileged
society living in inaccessible parts of India through telemedicine project conceived
with satellite technology. In a nutshell, the present day world has become a global
village and thereby we are in a shrinking globe and expanding universe. There is
tremendous convergence and fusion of communications, computers and associated
technology in the present era. Space communication technology takes all this
technological advancement to the rural areas which are backbone of Indian
democracy.

DESCRIPTION:

As we become increasingly networked, our world will grow smaller and bigger
simultaneously. Communication is at the root of the progress of every society.
Society is often described as essentially people in communication.

The conventional communication tools are:

♦ Telegraphy using copper wire line
♦ Telephony using copper wire line
♦ Television
♦ New papers, books, etc.
♦ Means of Transport

All these have undergone tremendous changes and the new technologies emerged are
♦ Mobile Satellite Telephone - Personal Communication Systems
♦ INFOSAT (information satellite)
♦ A major shift from analogue to digital domain
♦ An increase in the value of software as opposed to hardware content
♦ Extension of optical technology towards the local loop coupled with increasing use of
optical switches and optical processing
♦ Use of wireless in access technology - New access & Modulation codes
♦ Ultra broad band services
♦ Extensive use of spread spectrum and code division multiple access techniques.

Services planned / in existence are:

♦ Virtual Private Networks

♦ PCS - Personal Communication Services
♦ Call Collect Services
♦ Desk top Video conferencing
♦ Card Phone Services
♦ Teleshopping
♦ Video Telephone
♦ Telehealth

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♦ Tele-education
♦ Interactive Video & Video on demand
♦ Multimedia transmission / reception
♦ e-mail
♦ e-Governance
♦ e-commerce
♦ Global positioning/timing system along with SATNAV
♦ Digital TV, Direct TV to Home
MOST IMPORTANT - THE INTERNET & WORLD WIDE WEB

All these need either terrestrial or satellite channels to serve the user. The present day scenario
can be best summarized by fig-1. Here space communication becomes an important tool
irrespective of the large growth in terrestrial communication networks particularly when the
technology is to be taken to rural India.

Television Internet TV
Cable TV
Video on
AUDIO SYSTEM Demand
DVD Space

Telephone Internet
Cellular
Cellular
Pager Internet World
Telephony Wide
Fax
Web
Home Banking

Network
Printer Computing
VideoCamera Terrestrial
Video
Desktop PC conferencing
PDA
Credit Card Smart Card
VILLA
GE
A FUTURE COMMUNICATION SCENARIO

Space Communication is provided by satellites in various orbits. Satellites have been put in
to all these orbits and successful communication links have been established. It will be a
matter of large discussion if one starts explaining the pros & cons of the orbits & their
satellites. Satellite communication started with fixed services and expanded to greatest
potential applications in the mobile and broad cast services. Satellites have innate
advantage that make them an attractive alternative or complement to terrestrial
broadband circuits. Satellite communication provides reliable means of providing
information or monitoring inaccessible areas even in the case of severe cyclones and
disasters and when the entire terrestrial network fails. The conventional services
provided by satellites are: Telephony/TV Broadcasting/Data reception and
distribution/Direct Television broadcasting/Disaster warning/Continuous weather
monitoring/Spacecraft Vehicle Tracking and Commanding/ Inter satellite links/ Mail
/Internet/Data mining, Position (GPS) and time determination / Moving motor vehicle
tracking etc.

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Mobile Personal Communications:

Most of the time technological advancements have taken place due to defense
requirements. However in the area of communications where more than the military
requirements, it is the business requirements which have given a big flip to the overall
scenario of communication and ushered us from fixed copper wire communication era
to the era of mobile communication - meaning an individual (stationary or on move)
carrying small inexpensive hand held communicator and being reached by voice, fax
or data with a single telephone number independent of location. Basically it means to
provide communication to and from users located anywhere on the globe and
possessing a portable light weight hand held mobile telephone. This could be termed
as Personal Communication Services (PCS).

Today, a hand held mobile phone has become a personal hold and has become
affordable by every citizen across societies. This service is available only in densely
populated cities and towns. Even today, the cellular mobile service is a dream for
people in remote areas. This can be fulfilled with mobile Satellite Communication
though it is yet to take off commercially. The advantage of space communications is
that one does not have to be at a particular place to derive its benefits. The
Communication through space is independent of place and time and geo political
limit.

Though the Irridium and Global Star mobile satellite communication projects have
failed due to the astronomically high terminal & service cost as compared to
terrestrial based systems, on engineering account the two projects cannot be
considered as failures since the projects were engineering led - rather than marketing
led. In spite of cellular telephones and other mobile services, the two systems have
shown their usefulness over others in Afghanistan operations and also
communications to inaccessible places.

In the foreseeable future new equipments and techniques may be used in mobile
satellite technology to bring down the costs and make the system affordable. The day
is not far off for providing the benefits of technological advancement being enjoyed
by urban people to the people in rural inaccessible India.

Internet over satellite:

It will be quite important and relevant to talk about latest arrival on the
communication technology scene: the internet and the web. Today, the internet
provides a vast array of services with high bandwidth links that can simultaneously
carry telephone, video (Television) and data and is accessible from anywhere through
a variety of information appliances ranging from personal computers and hand-held
digital assistants to screen phones and televisions, not to mention the computers
embedded in everything from automobiles to vending machines. The Net is a
phenomenon that cannot be ignored. It is an agent of change in all sectors of society. .
In turn, this will lead to truly profound changes in society & the present technological
paradigm.

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To help all these & to spread the net at a faster pace even to inaccessible & remote
places satellite communication plays a major role, besides the conventional terrestrial
links, optical links etc., which cater to cities and larger population bases owning to the
economics.

It is expected that the space based high speed internet service will reflect triple digit
growth rate. As of today internet is the greatest thing to happen in the satellite
industry. For many space segment operators INTERNET is the biggest earner. As of
today internet is going towards zero tolerance for failure. The goal is more & more
critical services to NET. The availability of internet services through space is a big
boon to rural folk to get all the information required for increasing their knowledge
including agricultural productivity.

Services Provided by ISRO:

ISRO had mainly three types of satellites viz., Communication satellites mainly for
communication operating in GEO, Remote sensing satellites deployed in LEO and
scientific satellites; for various applications driving the growth and development of
entire India. Many applications are mainly focused towards upliftment of rural areas
by bringing education, health etc. to the door steps of rural homes/community centres.

INSAT Utilization:

Satellite Television broadcast was first introduced by ISRO in India 32 years back
when the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE), targeted for rural areas,
was commenced on August 1, 1975. The video conference involved the use of INSAT-
2C and INSAT-3B satellites. Over the years, ISRO has also conducted interactive
training and distance education programmes through the INSAT satellite system.

INSAT series satellites deployed in GEO orbit are mainly providing

• Telecommunication
• Television
• Search and Rescue
• Meteorology
• Radio Networking.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) signed Memorandum of

Understanding with various state governments for establishing a satellite-based
communication network using the Ku-band capacity of INSAT system. The Ku-band
capacity of INSAT will be used for promoting satellite based communication,
specifically, in the areas of distance education, tele-medicine, agricultural extension,
e-governance, self-help groups, marketing and HRD, community internet centres, etc.
While ISRO will provide the transponder capacity on board INSAT and the technical
support of the state governments will operate the satellite communication network for
the various objectives afore-mentioned.

ISRO has already helped the Orissa State Government in the implementation of Vidya
Vahini Yojana. Besides, it has established the Jhabua Developmental Communication
project in Madhya Pradesh that is in progress since 1996. ISRO has also started the

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INSAT training and developmental communication channel in 1995 that is being used
by several private and Government agencies for industrial training, training of
panchayat workers, agricultural extension workers, etc. The MOU signed with Andhra
Pradesh marks yet another milestone in the implementation of a countrywide Gramsat
network for grassroots level development

Video-conferencing facility provided by INSATs is a great achievement in bringing

various segments of administration together. To give an example, the facility enabled
then Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, on August 01, 2000 to have a virtual
"tete-a-tete" with the chiefs of Panchayat Raj Institutions from 14 video/studio link
centres spread across the states of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka. In an hour-
long conversation, the Prime Minister had a first hand assessment of the nitty-gritty of
the local problems being faced at the grassroots level in the country. The video
conferencing centres had been established at Bakshi ka Talab, Gaurabaug, Sarojini
Nagar, Nishatganj and Cantonment Park Road in Lucknow district (UP), Himmat
Nagar, Mehsana, Nadiad, Palanpur and Gandhinagar in Gujarat and at Mangalore,
Dharwar, Raichur and Tumkur in Karnataka. Lauding the role of science in the rapid
strides being made by the nation, the Prime Minister congratulated the scientists and
engineers for their endeavor to make the video conference a reality. Mr Vajpayee said
that this would bridge gaps and open up new vistas of growth and communication.

Video conference provided a platform for the Prime Minister to give a patient hearing
to the Panchayat representatives and, at the same time, apprised them of the
limitations and practical problems faced by the government at times and to discuss
vast array of issues viz., specific problems faced by panchayat institutions like
education, water shortage, and irrigation.

Telemedicine:

The advances and convergence of IT and telecommunication can bring the entire
health care services to the patient’s doorstep. Telemedicine is delivery of health care
information across distances using telecom technology. This includes transfer of
images like X-rays, CT, MRI, ECG, etc. from patient to expert doctors seamlessly,
apart from the live video conferencing between the patient at remote hospital with the
specialists at the super speciality hospital for tele-consultation and treatment.

ISRO has been spearheading satellite based telemedicine programme in the country
with remote district hospitals connected to Super Specialty Hospitals in major cities
using INSAT satellite (Fig.2).

The advantage of telemedicine in reaching out to the rural and remote population has
been well established through the experience of this present telemedicine network.
However, there is a need to provide a common platform to all concerned agencies like
communication systems/software and medical equipment providers, super-specialty
hospitals, healthcare administrators, various departments of Government, trust and
private hospitals, NGOs and corporate hospitals dealing with healthcare both in India
and abroad. It will also help to exchange ideas, practices and methodology to
effectively implement and use the emerging telemedicine technology

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 Reaching the un-reached
Empowerment at the
grassroots through
information
dissemination and
Referral
Hospitals
Health Specialist
Video Conferencing Centre

Cardiology

Pathology
Video Conferencing
A M BU LA N C E

Panel of Doctors

Fig.2 Telemedicine via satellite

In the field of telemedicine, the first pilot project was started in Andhra Pradesh in
2000 connecting Apollo Hospitals at Chennai and Aragonda village and ISRO's
hospital at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota, in Nellore District. The
telemedicine network is extended to more hospitals.

DTH-TV Broadcasting
Common entertainment today is through Television. Television broadcasted by satellites
enabled every citizen in all parts of the country to have the benefits. DTH – TV broadcasting
comes under BSS (Broadcasting services) as well as under FSS (Fixed Satellite Services).
Under FSS services it is from point to multipoint but whose location is known while under
BSS it is always in universal broadcast mode. With digital TV in 36 MHz standard
transponder, one can transmit almost 12 TV channels using latest compression, error
correcting codes etc, where even at low SNR better TV quality can be received. This will give
rise to the possibility of reducing orbital separations between DTH Satellites. This is only the
means to provide entertainment communication to rural inaccessible areas.

Village Resource Centres (VRC):

Communication Satellites are effectively used to provide all most all the useful
information needed for the village folks by establishing village resource
centres/information kiosks (Fig. 3). This is another highly successful project to
bring technology to the benefit of rural areas.

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VRC project strives to promote a need based single window delivery system for
providing services in the areas of education, health, nutrition, weather, environment,
agriculture and livelihoods to the rural population to empower them to face
challenges. This satellite based project, aims for digital connectivity to remote
villages for providing multiple services such as telemedicine, tele-education and
remote sensing applications through a single window. The setting up of VRC is yet
another saga of adventure that has been taken up by ISRO to benefit the rural society.

INFO SERVICE PROVIDER

STUDI
VILLAGE INFO BROADCAST O
2-WAY MODE
Kiosk SYM/ASYM MODE

VIDEO
TRANSFER NETWORK
* NETWORK MANAGEMENT DATA
BASE VOICE

VOICE DATA
Empowerment at the grassroots through
information dissemination and decision support
NR INFO ACCESS AGR. ADVISORY MET. INFO SERVICE
IRRIGATION SCHEDULE EDUCATION MARKET ADVISORY
TRAINING HEALTH SERVICES ENTERTAINMENT
ENTITLEMENTS MAIL TRANSACTIONS BROWSING

Fig.3 Village community information kiosks

The VRC concept has been evolved and implemented by integrating ISRO's
capabilities in satellite communications and satellite based earth observation to
disseminate a variety of services emanating from the space systems and other
Information Technology tools to address the changing and critical needs of rural
communities. The VRC is a totally interactive VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal)
based network.

Users located at one node of this network can fully interact with others located at
another node through video and audio links. Each of the nodes can be further
extended using other technologies like Wi-Fi, Wireless and Optical Fibre. These
extensions may serve as local clusters around the areas where the VRC is located.

The information provided will be in the form of geo-referenced land record, natural
resources, suitable sites for drinking water as well as sites for recharging to replenish
ground water, water harvesting, wastelands that can be reclaimed, rural employment
creation, watershed, environment, infrastructure, alternate cropping pattern, and so on.
By suitably blending the information derived from earth observation satellites with
ground derived and weather related information, locale-specific community advisory
services can be provided. Community based vulnerability and risk related
information, provision of timely early warning and dissemination of severe weather

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related information can lead to reliable disaster management support at the village
level.

VRCs can also provide a variety of services like tele-education, telemedicine, online
decision support, interactive farmers' advisory services, tele-fishery, e-governance
services, weather services and water management. By providing tele-education
services, the VRCs act as virtual community centric learning centres. At the same
time, VRCs will provide connectivity to speciality hospitals thus bringing the services
of expert doctors closer to the villages.

In addition, VRCs will facilitate access to spatial information on important subjects

like land use/land cover, soil and ground water prospects which can enable the
farmers to get support in taking important decisions based on their query. Besides,
VRCs will enable online interaction between the local farmers and agricultural
scientists. Fishermen can obtain information on sea state and wave heights. Provision
of information on many governmental schemes, location and farming system specific
action plans based on weather, community specific advice on soil and water
conservation are the other services rendered by VRCs.

Search & Rescué:

The search and rescue facility provided by satellites is a breakthrough in technology

in ensuring safety and providing support in case of disasters/accidents to the tourists,
fishermen etc.

Meteorology:

All the first generation INSATs and INSAT-2A, 2B and 2E in the second generation in
the operational INSAT system were configured for multi purpose mission with
transponders for telecommunication & broadcasting and Meteorological payloads. To
meet the demanding requirements of Indian Meteorological Department’s, ISRO
launched a satellite with dedicated meteorological payloads - Very High Resolution
Radiometer (VHRR) and Data Relay Transponder (DRT), and is named as Kalpana-1
after launch in the memory of Late (Ms) Kalpana Chawla, Indian born American
Astronaut.

Very High Resolution Radiometer (VHRR) is a three band VHRR capable of imaging
the earth in three spectral bands namely Visible(VIS), Water Vapor (WV) and Thermal
Infra Red (TIR), to provide both day and night coverage.

The weather data relay transponder (DRT) receives 402.75 MHz signals from
unattended weather data collection platforms, translates them to 4506.05 MHz and
retransmits it to a central facility - Meteorological Data Utilization Centre, IMD,
Delhi. This data is being used along with the VHRR imageries for weather
forecasting.

Satellite derived products data are increasingly used in conjunction with conventional
meteorological observations in the synoptic analysis and conventional weather
forecasts to extract information of relevance to various sectors in India. The impact

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of satellite data is phenomenal in certain areas of meteorological applications such as
thunderstorm forecasts, Tropical Cyclone monitoring, aviation forecasts etc. The
major application of satellite data has been the monitoring of Synoptic weather
systems ranging from thunderstorms, fog detection to cyclones and planetary scale
phenomena such as monsoon.

Synoptic applications of satellite imagery are in use at Indian Meteorological

Department. Following satellite data products are derived from Kalpana-1 and the
same are also archived and displayed on IMD website daily.
• Earth cloud imagery in visible, IR bands and water vapor every hour on black &
white and color.
• Clouds Motion vectors over Bay of Bengal, Arbian Sea and Indian Ocean at 00,
07, 12 and 18 UTC and being disseminated over GTS.
• Outgoing long wave radiation (OLR) on daily/weekly/monthly basis at 0600UTC.
• Sea surface Temperature (SSTs) at 0600 UTC is being derived over Bay of
Bengal, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.
• Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPE) on daily/weekly/monthly basis.

Satellite bulletins based on 3 hourly / 1 hourly Kalpana-1 cloud imageries are

prepared and transmitted to all the forecasting offices on Global Telecom Service
(GTS) through RTH, New Delhi. Satellite imageries and animations are also put on
the IMD website on regular basis for the users and public. Heavy rainfall advisory,
bulletins are also transmitted regularly for IMD forecasting offices and other centres
daily. During the tropical cyclones in Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal hourly special
satellite bulletins with intensity and position are also issued for all the users by the
satellite Div., IMD.

During winter season, fog formation is one of the most important weather events over
northern parts of India which affects the aviation badly. The Kalpana-1 imageries are
regularly utilized for capturing such events.

IRS utilization:

Remote Sensing satellites launched and operated by ISRO are highly successful in
providing vital information regarding earth resources and also in providing
cartographic maps for town planning and development.

Data from Indian Remote Sensing Satellite is used for various applications of
resources survey and management under the National Natural Resources Management
System (NNRMS).

• Preharvest crop acreage and production estimation of major crops.

• Drought monitoring and assessment based on vegetation condition.
• Flood risk zone mapping and flood damage assessment.
• Hydro-geomorphological maps for locating underground water resources for
drilling well.
• Irrigation command area status monitoring
• Snow-melt run-off estimates for planning water use in down stream projects
• Land use and land cover mapping

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 • Urban planning
• Forest survey
• Wetland mapping
• Environmental impact analysis
• Mineral Prospecting
• Coastal studies
• Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development for generating locale-specific
prescriptions for integrated land and water resources development in 174
districts.

Many state governments are utilizing the remote sensing data for various applications
including town planning. For example, Andhra Pradesh has been extensively using
ISRO satellites for societal applications. Andhra Pradesh is one of the foremost in
the utilisation of remote sensing technology for management of land and water
resources and disaster management. Remote sensing technology is used for watershed
management in drought prone districts of Adilabad, Ananthapur, Kurnool,
Mahaboobnagar, Nizamabad and Ranga Reddy. Management plans for major
irrigation projects like Srirama Sagara and Nagarjuna Sagara have been planned using
remote sensing data. More than 35,000 bore wells have been drilled using remote
sensing data with better than 90 percent success rate.

Oceansat

The 1050 kg satellite placed in a Polar sunsynchronous orbit of 720 km height. IRS-
P4 carried on board an Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) and a Multifrequency Scanning
Microwave Radiometer (MSMR).

OCM is a solid state camera operating in eight narrow spectral bands. The camera is
used to collect data on chlorophyll concentration, detect and monitor phytoplankton
blooms and obtain data on atmospheric aerosols and suspended sediments in the
water.

The Microwave Scanning Radiometer (MSMR) which operates in four microwave

frequencies both in vertical and horizontal polarisation with its all weather capaility is
useful for measuring sea surface temperature and meteorological parameters like Sea
Surface Temperature (SST), Atmospheric Water Vapor and Sea Surface Winds.

The Oceansat data helped fisherman to a great extent in locating fish concentration in
the sea and in increasing the fish produce. The satellite data also helped to study the
ocean behaviour and to provide safety guidelines and precautions to fisherman, divers
and navy to a great extent.

INFOSAT:

The future Telecommunication spacecrafts will be developed from transmission in to

Information Satellites (INFOSAT). They will be given many of the properties of
terrestrial telephone exchanges and signal processing equipments and it will be
possible to integrate them directly into future global networks. They will thus permit
immediate applications of many existing and future services. Because of their
inherent built up flexibility, these satellites will be able to support and speed up the

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initial experimental phase of many new services before their trial on terrestrial
networks. These type of satellites will enable new services to be tried out over a large
area before being put in to the market and optimally adapted to suit the most
appropriate transmission medium.

The future INFOSATS will be of three types: National / Regional, International &
Relay.

Future technologies will enable the construction of an INFOSAT network in which the
above three will be connected to each other. The onboard processors will ensure that
the signals to be exchanged between the satellite and the terrestrial subscribers are
combined using Time Division and Space Division multiplexing techniques and
distributed in accordance with the user requirements. Special coding techniques will
ensure the security of transmissions.

Configuration of INFOSAT:
The satellite platform will have multiple reconfigurable antennas/transmitters with
dynamic power sharing / Receivers in X various frequency ranges / large
reconfigurable switching matrices at baseband and at RF level / intersatellite links
permitting signals to be exchanged between satellites according to changing
requirements / complex and efficient analog / optical / digital signal processors / New
modulation technique and multiple access techniques. It will be sufficiently
broadband systems & may have even optical space communication components.

The satellites besides their autonomous control and power generation equipment may
have sensors to observe the earth’s atmosphere and pass the data to an appropriate
station after processing. This will help to deal with the situation like Orissa Cyclone.
Such a system will obviously have Geo synchronous spacecrafts with some orbiting
satellites to take care of North/South pole regions.

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Fig. 4 INFOSAT configuration

The INFOSAT Network (Fig.4) is to be an integral component of the planned world-

wide broadband telecommunication network. Therefore it will be necessary for
planning of the satellite network and the terrestrial network to be closely coordinated.
Until now satellites have connected the terrestrial networks of various countries and
organizations.

Services to be provided by INFOSAT:

Radio and data distribution services to many users which are spread over a large area.
Data collection services for large areas with many data transmitter stations (multi
point-to-point operation : weather, oil, electricity & water meter reading etc.).
Telecommunication services for thin routes
Telecommunication services with ships, aeroplanes, space vehicles, etc).
In the area of business communications demand is growing for broad band internet &
multimedia communication facilities which can be applied flexibly using satellites.
Worldwide Radio paging
Video conferencing and high resolution TV broadcast trials.
Mobile radio services can be combined with location finding services and be used for
automatically locating subscribers.
Earth observation with special warning mechanism and environmental protection
services in close coordination with terrestrial sensors.

By integrating INFOSAT into terrestrial network, it will be possible to supply all the
subscribers of a future global network with all essential information. This will make
the location of the user quite irrelevant.

Conclusion:

There is a great influence of present day fast evolving technologies particularly the
digital techniques on the development of the society. Satellite technology bridges the
gap between urban and rural areas in utilizing the technologies. Inspite of
advancement of technology to a great extent, many parts of India are still backward
and inaccessible by terrestrial means. Satellite technology connects total country
irrespective of location. This paper briefed about the services provided by satellites to
bring the cutting edge technology and benefits to the rural and inaccessible area.

References:

1. Surendra Pal, Advanced Satellite Communication Technology-A

Perspective, Journal of Spacecraft Technology, Vol.12, No.2, July 2002.
2. Lectures delivered by the author Dr. Surendra Pal on Satellite
Communication and various studies carried out in the area.

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