The federal cabinet has approved the satellite frequency co-ordination agreements made by Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) on behalf of the government with satellite network administrations of Turkey, France, UAE, Greece and Malaysia, sources told Business Recorder.
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) regulates the use of orbital slots in space for operating satellite systems and the co-ordination of frequency resources for efficient inter-working between satellites of different administrations, sources said. "Each administration that wants to operate its own satellite systems has to file application for allocation of an orbital slot with the ITU."
ITU has put in place a process whereby the administrations proposing a new satellite have to co-ordinate the usage of these frequencies with existing and other field satellites within a certain neighbourhood of the proposed satellite. ITU notifies the number of satellite systems that have to be co-ordinated at the time of assigning an orbital slot to any administration.
In this respect, Pakistan was allotted a geo-stationary orbital slot for communication satellite at 38 degrees East longitude. After the Cabinet's approval, the slot was occupied on December 20, 2002 with a leased satellite, which was named Paksat-1.
ITU provided a list of 32 countries with which frequency co-ordination had to be carried out for permanent legal operations of the Paksat-1. "The same slot on which Paksat-1 operates would now be used for launching Paksat-IR which will be developed fully according to the future requirements of Pakistani satellite," he emphasised.
In order to co-ordinate with the other satellite network administrations like Turkey, France, UAE, Greece and Malaysia, Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) made some agreements. The IT ministry, after approval from its part, forwarded the summary of the agreements to the Cabinet in order to get its ratification.
He told this scribe that these co-ordination agreements provide protection for operation of Paksat-1. Also the result of these co-ordinations is favourable to Paksat-1 operations in accordance with ITU field parameters. "These agreements would also facilitate the operation of replacement satellite Paksat-1R", he highlighted.