The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) played a crucial role in 2007, providing INSAT services to VSAT service providers, DTH, DSNG vans, disaster management system, data relay transponder and mobile satellite services. The demand for transponder has increased with new DTH entrants such as Reliance, Sun Network, and Videocon already applying for the transponder space. The launch of INSAT 4CR proved to be fruitful for the broadcasters and ISRO also has big plans on the anvil to provide more transponders for DTH transmission. It is believed that 65 percent of the satellite capacity is used for cable TV and DTH and 35 percent for providing other services. The technology and delivery of content is moving from analog to digital and thus increasing the need for larger bandwidth. Efforts are made for using MPEG4 compression technology to create more bandwidth to ensure that increased demand is met for DTH, HDTV, disaster recovery, backhaul cell phone services, digital cinema, and IPTV. Currently ISRO is the sole domestic satellite owner and operator of its band of INSAT, leasing capacity to users on its own satellites and if necessary also on foreign satellites.

The major plans of ISRO in the 11^th five year plan include increasing the transponder capacity from 200 to 500, build and launch a spacecraft on contract for foreign clients, and a first Ka-band INSAT multiple beam satellite GSAT-4 along with a navigation transponder to be launched in 2008. According to ISRO, there is no shortage of transponders for DTH. All DTH service providers have hired INSAT capacity as per their requirements. If INSAT capacity is not available, ISRO/DOS leases DTH capacity from other satellites as required. Number of channels accommodated on the same capacity can be increased with advanced technology like MPEG-4. ISRO/DOS at present has 10 communication satellites. These include INSAT-2E, INSAT-3B, INSAT-3C, INSAT-3A, INSAT-3E, GSAT-2, GSAT-3, INSAT-4A, INSAT-4B, INSAT-4CR, and meteorological satellite Kalpana-1. METSAT is the first exclusive meteorological satellite built by ISRO. So far, meteorological services had been combined with telecommunication and television services in the INSAT system. METSAT will be a precursor to the future INSAT system that will have separate satellites for meteorology and telecommunication & broadcasting services. This will enable large capacity to be built into INSAT satellites, both in terms of transponders and their radiated power, without the design constraints imposed by meteorological instruments.

The government also plans to air educational programs through EDUSAT. The 1950 kg EDUSAT has several new technologies. It carries five Ku-band transponders providing spot beams, one Ku-band transponder providing a national beam and six extended C- band transponders with national coverage beam. It will join the INSAT system that already has more than 130 transponders in C band, extended C band, and Ku-band providing a variety of telecommunication and television services