Revised uplinking-downlinking guidelines to be released in a month: I&B Secretary Apurva Chandra

The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry will release the revised Uplinking and Downlinking Guidelines 2011 within a month in order to de-regulate uplinking, I&B secretary Apurva Chandra said on October 28.

In satellite telecommunication, a downlink is the link from a satellite down to one or more ground stations or receivers, and an uplink is the link from a ground station up to a satellite

On the third day of the India Space Congress, Chandra said that the deregulation of uplinking would help India's neighbours who lack their own satellites.

Chandra said, "The Uplinking and the Downlinking Guidelines are now 11 years old. We are in the process of revising these guidelines. We want to deregulate the uplinking so that India can become a hub.

"Today we are giving permission for uplinking as well downlinking. Because of the proposed deregulation of uplinking, neighbouring countries such as Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka can use India as a hub for uplinking of channels. India can become an uplinking hub," Chandra added.

In May 2020, the Centre released draft guidelines for uplinking and downlinking to address the issue of some channels bypassing the auction process for DD Free Dish Slots, according to a report by The Hindu.

Chandra also stated that Prasar Bharat and IIT Kanpur were developing a direct-to-mobile broadcasting platform with the aim of increasing TV content consumption over mobile content.

"Mobile users can see channels directly. This will ensure effective consumption of spectrum and would also be cost-effective for broadcasters as the number of viewers would drastically increase from the current 200 mn to 800 mn," Chandra added.