Kolkata: The governmment will shortly clear a three-way partnership between Russia's NIS Glonass, BSNL and MTNLBSE for delivering satellite-based navigation services in India, top officials in the telecom department told ET.
"A draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) between NIS Glonass, BSNL and MTNL for provision of satellite navigation services is being considered by the government," says an internal telecom department note reviewed by ET, which adds that the Russian government recently informed the foreign ministry about making the Glonass system available to the global community for free use.
The development comes on the heels of Russia's plans to roll out satellite-based information services akin to `GPS' on the Glonass system in international markets like India. Glonass is a Russian space-based system with 23 operational satellites deployed for delivering information services.
NIS Glonass is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Russian public-private partnership company, Navigation-Information Systems, whose main stakeholders are Russian conglomerate JSFC Sistema (70.01%) and JSC Russian Space Systems (29.99%) .
Details of this tripartite alliance remain under wraps, but a top official in the Russian Embassy said formation of this three-way partnership with India's leading telecom PSUs would reinforce Indo-Russian collaborations in advanced technology.
"We hope the Indian government will issue the necessary clearances expeditiously to NIS Glonass for this crucial telecoms partnership to take flight. It is an important milestone in Indo-Russian collaboration in advanced technology and space research," said this official who did not wish to be named.
Glonass or "Global Navigation Satellite System" was only used by the Russian military for years and was made available to civilians only in 2007. Similar to the US's Global Positioning System (GPS), it is also a radio-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information anywhere in the planet, and is equipped to lend critical support to military, civil and commercial users worldwide.
NIS Glonass has earlier reportedly indicated plans to participate in Indian government projects relating to passenger information system, fleet management systems and modernising the police forces. It is also planned to develop telematics terminals in India that can work on both GPS and Glonass satellite navigation systems, said two people familiar with developments. Company executives could not be reached for comment.
Though the Glonass satellite constellation offers global coverage, its commercialisation, especially development of the user segment, it has been lacking compared to the US's GPS system. Recently, the Russian government reportedly imposed an import duty on all GPS-capable devices, including mobile phones, unless they also supported the Glonass system.
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