Why S-Band is so valuable

S-Band is the only available spectrum with India for mobile satellite services.

The S-Band spectrum has been a bone of contention between terrestrial mobile phone service providers and backers of satellite mobile services for the last few years,according to letters exchanged by interested groups with agencies such as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the Wireless Planning and Coordination Authority.

Terrestrial mobile phone operators have been insisting that the2.5 -2.69 GHz band S-Band be fully preserved as an extension band for 3G services. But advocates of satellite mobile services such as the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO argue that S-Band is the only available spectrum in India to establish satellite mobile services.

Providers of services such as Wimax have at the same time sought the S-Band spectrum to propagate wireless broadband technology.

Due to the lack of availability of spectrum in 2.1 GHz to meet Indias 3G requirements,it is important that the use of full 2.5 GHz to 2.69 GHz band as an extension band for 3G needs to be assured to have secure and predictable access to spectrum in order to provide social and economic advantages, the Cellular Operators Association of India wrote in May 2008 as its recommendations for the National Frequency Allocation Plan 2008,which came into existence in 2009.

INSAT operations in this band should be restricted as per radio regulations and from now on no future allocations in this band should be made for INSAT systems, the association wrote.

The Department of Space DOS has,however,argued that S-Band is needed for radio networking,cyclone warning dissemination system,meteorological data dissemination and satellite mobile television transmission.

In a letter to TRAI in December 2009,scientific secretary to ISRO A Bhaskarnarayana said the DOS in principle identified 40 Mhz out of the 190 available with it for use for wireless broadband applications such Wimax technologies.

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Use of the S-Band for wireless broadband technologies will be subject to ensuring protection to mobile satellite services and broadband satellite services in the spectrum bands adjacent to proposed broadband wireless applications spectrum bands, the DOS said in a letter to TRAI.

The S-Band is the only available spectrum with India for mobile satellite services as per the allocations of the International Telecom Union ITU. It was obtained after a lot of international negotiations. India cannot ignore satellite-based mobile services for secure communication needs even in remote areas, says a retired ISRO scientist.

According to the chairman of the Wimax Forum in India,C S Rao,the S-Band spectrum has historically been used for satellite applications but is also being recognised by the ITU for 4G technologies like Wimax in many countries. S-Band is most valuable for the wireless broadband era because 70 MHz can provide 300 million people with access to 2MB speed broadband. Mobile satellite services providers can reach only around 100,000.