How have the 'gift' transponders on ISRO's GSAT-9 been used by other countries?

Question

edit: It's been seven months. close to two years close to two years and seven months over three years now, have any of the 'gift' transponders been used or at least tested yet by the gift recipient nation?

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The BBC news item India launches 'invaluable' South Asia satellite describes the 'gifting' or zero-cost licensing of transponders on the recently launched GSAT-9 to other South Asian countries.

So it seems Mr Modi is placing the ISRO in a new orbit by providing this space-based platform that would have cost the participating nations almost $1,500m (£1,158m).

According to the government, the satellite will enable a full range of services to India's neighbours in telecommunication and broadcasting areas such as television, direct-to-home (DTH) services, education, telemedicine, weather forecasting and disaster management support.

Is it possible for one transponder to simultaneously support all or many of those services, or would a country have to pick just one of them? I don't know the total bandwidth available from each transponder. I'm wondering if the idea is more that the transponder would allow experimentation and pilot studies, rather than a full range of services?

Answer 1

Partial...

Uptake has been slow (as reported in 2022), partially due to either starting from non existent ground facilities to make use of it (Maldives and, at the time, Bhutan), and other nations already having their own active satellite programs. China butted into the region and offers its satellite facilities to the region too.

Bhutan, and Bangladesh are getting benefit of South Asia Satellite and other Nations are working out their plans to utilize it effectively.

https://www.unoosa.org/documents/pdf/copuos/stsc/2022/statements/17_India.pdf

https://www.spacetechasia.com/bhutan-to-begin-using-gsat-9-services-end-november/

Bhutan to begin using GSAT-9 services end-November (2018)

Bhutan has been allocated one Ku-band transponder on GSAT-9. This is a geostationary satellite developed and operated by India, under its space agency ISRO, which India is sharing with its neighbours to spur regional development.

“With [the South Asia Satellite], we plan to utilize for services for emergency communications. We also want to use this satellite capacity for domestic and international backup, especially in terms of voice connectivity. We’re also thinking of uplinking the two national TV channels to this satellite”, said Phuntsho.

From this, it appears that the transponder for each participating country is able to support multiple services.

the South Asia Satellite is serving India as well as project participants Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The satellite carries 12 Ku-band transponders, with each country having been gifted one dedicated transponder.

https://www.thedailystar.net/business/bangladesh-links-indias-south-asia-satellite-1545130

Bangladesh has finally linked up with India's South Asia Satellite and the telecom regulator will soon send a proposal to the prime minister seeking a nod to use the satellite for research purposes.

(compared to its own indigenous satellite capability) “Our own satellite can be used for commercial purposes and we can also sell its capacity to other countries while South Asia Satellite will be used only for limited purposes and its capacity will never be sold,” ...

User list is essentially SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) without Pakistan (declined to participate), and was known as the SAARC satellite for a period of time, before changing the name to South Asia Satellite. As such the member states offered the services of GSAT-9 (SAS) were Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Of those, as mentioned previously, only Bhutan and Bangladesh, in addition to India, are thought to be making any use of it.

Aside from India, Bhutan (listed above) was one of the first to announce operations with the SAS.

In August 2019, during a two-day visit to Bhutan, Modi inaugurated the first of these ground stations in Thimphu as part of the South Asia Satellite project. According to the then ISRO chairman K. Sivan, ISRO bore the costs of setting up the station under an agreement between the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and Bhutan, while discussions were in progress with Afghanistan, Nepal, and the Maldives to install ground stations on their territory for accessing satellite data.

Crucially, however, the ground station in Thimphu is also seen as a response to China’s decision to build an advanced satellite tracking center and astronomical observatory in the Tibet autonomous region, which is believed to be used to track India’s space activities.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14736489.2023.2295715

https://gunasat.blogspot.com/2020/11/another-new-tp-started-on-gsat-9-973-e.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3dVFxvgD4Zcc5Nyi1NqBKI00LP36IQAjLvxrn7WVZ7RCU_TF7QP7KdYcc_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw