[11-19-07 – Satellite Today] ProtoStar Ltd. and Antrix, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), will jointly provide 216 megahertz of interim satellite capacity to support direct-to-home (DTH) television demand in India, the organizations announced Nov. 19.
    ISRO and Antrix with use the transponder to bridge an expected shortage in capacity until a new Insat satellite becomes available. “The recent launches of Insat-4B and Insat-4CR have enabled ISRO to add 36 transponders within a space of six months. In order to further fill the gap in the demand, ISRO has also been adding transponders to the Insat system by leasing capacity from other regional partners from time to time,” K.R. Sridhara Murthy, executive director of Antrix, said in a statement.
    For ProtoStar, the agreement allows it to use capacity its has leased from another provider until its planned launch of ProtoStar 1 in the 2008 second quarter and ProtoStar 2 in 2009.
“ProtoStar welcomes its new partnership with ISRO/Antrix as an opportunity to begin serving the high growth Indian DTH market at a critical point in its services expansion,” Philip Father, president and CEO of ProtoStar, said in a statement. “We anticipate that this interim agreement will be the beginning of a long and mutually productive relationship with ISRO and Antrix.”
The service is scheduled to begin in February.