Communication Satellite GSAT-15 successfully launched
India's latest communication satellite GSAT-15 was successfully
launched by Ariane-5 rocket in the early hours Wednesday 11 Nov,2015 from
the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana.
The European launcher blasted off at 03:04 AM (IST) and hurled the
GSAT-15, designed to deliver telecommunications services, as well as dedicated
navigation-aid and emergency services, into space in a flawless flight.
GSAT-15 was launched into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO)
after its co-passenger Arabsat-6B (BADR-7) was injected into space.
GSAT-15, weighing 3,164 kg at lift-off, is a high power satellite
being inducted into the INSAT/GSAT system. It carries a total of 24
communication transponders in Ku-band as well as a GPS-Aided GEO Augmented
Navigation (GAGAN) payload operating in L1 and L5 bands.
BSNL to offer minimum broadband speed of 2 Mbps
State-run
BSNL will offer a minimum broadband speed of 2 mega bit per second (Mbps) from
October 1 onwards to its customers, at no extra cost.
The
company currently offers a minimum speed of 512 Kbps and the move is part of
its efforts for revival.
BSNL is
losing customers in mobile as well as landline to private operators. The
company lost about 1.78 crore wireless and over 20 lakh wireline subscribers
between March 2014 and March 2015. The losses for the firm stood at Rs 7,600
crore.
Given the
hyper competition in the marker, BSNL's announcement may also let private
operators to offer higher speed at lower cost. Sectoral regulator Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India ( TRAI) is also expected to soon redefine the
definition of broadband speed, which is currently 512 kbps.
Launching
the scheme here, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that BSNL should
have frequent interface with customers and the efforts taken today by
increasing the internet definition should help in digital India initiative,
which is more for poor.
"We
have increased the internet speed four times ...we have ensured 2 Mbps is
available at last mile, which is the customer premises starting October
1," BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava said.
Srivastava
added that BSNL is on a revival path and the company has added about 15 lakh
mobile customers in last few months as against 7-8 lakh subscribers per
month.
India 2nd in demanding web-user information – Google
The
Indian government ranked second in demanding Web user information — next only
to the U.S. government — from Google in the six-month period from January to
June 2012, according to the ‘Transparency Report’ published by the search
engine on November 15. The bi-annual report details two categories of requests
Google gets from government worldwide: requests to divulge user data and
requests to pull down content. The number of government requests to remove or
block online content in India was the second-highest after the US. Google
complied with about 64 per cent of the requests by the Indian government
requests to divulge user data. Regarding requests to pull down content,
the search engine giant removed items on grounds of ‘religious offences’ violation
of an individual’s personal privacy. The items Indian authorities requested be
removed were primarily from YouTube, Google’s web search and Blogger.
Only nine nations own national Twitter handles
Only nine
out of the 193 U.N. member states own Twitter accounts bearing their country’s
name, and only three of those accounts have been officially verified by the
microblogging site, according to a report published on November 15. In
“Twiplomacy”, a study looking at country branding on Twitter, communications
firm Burson-Marstellar said it had found that most country name accounts were
held by private individuals and that three out of five were dormant, inactive,
suspended or protected, meaning they can only be seen by accepted viewers.
Twitter handle @India is owned by an Indian living in Guangzhou in China.
