ISRO GSAT-11 successfully launched: Ariane-5 rocket lifts India's heaviest communication satellite into orbit

Why isn’t GSAT-11 being launched in India?

What will ISRO's GSAT-11 do?

The Rs 1,174-crore GSAT-11 satellite is designed to boost the reach, speeds and capacity in India's commercial telecom sector. The satellite will help meet the country’s growing mobile and internet usage in households, businesses and public organisations, ISRO said.Once launched, GSAT-11 will be India's most capable and top-of-the-line satellite in orbit (and ISRO's portfolio).GSAT-11 is expected to bring far greater speeds (16 Gbps of it, no less) to meet the growing data demands of Indian telecom subscribers. It is also expected to bridge the communication gap between the country's urban and rural population. Large parts of rural areas still remain untouched by the scope of commercial telecom today — something GSAT-11 is designed to address.Under Digital India's BharatNet project, GSAT-11 will boost access to voice and video streaming in most, if not all, of rural India, ISRO said.“With India moving fast towards implementing ‘Smart Villages and Cities’, they can be efficiently linked through a large communication satellite,” K Sivan, chairman of ISRO, said in a curtain raiser.GSAT-11 has a mission lifetime of 15 years.

How will GSAT-11 work?

GSAT-11's 'multi-spot' beam coverage area. Image courtesy: ISRO[/caption]GSAT-11 is reportedly bringing bandwidths of 14 Gigabit/s in voice and video broadband services anywhere in the Indian mainland or islands over its 15-year lifespan. It will use 'spot beams' to cover the expansive area (see image above).Four terrestrial gateways or 'hubs' located in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Ranchi, will connect the satellite to users.Each of these hubs is also connected to each other through an optical fibre network to ensure the connectivity is seamless.