Only $5 Million

Let’s get one thing straight: we never launched Paksat-1 into space. In fact even the relocation of the satellite into our slot, 38 E longitudes, was not “due to the hard work of our scientists” as Musharraf had pompously declared a year ago in January 2003.

Eight years back, Hughes Global Systems (HGS), an American satellite-building firm, had launched the construct as Palapa-C1, specifically to function as the backbone of Indonesia’s communications infrastructure. When the battery charge controller aboard this satellite malfunctioned, the Indonesians declared it unfit for its planned mission. HGS later leased the same satellite to Turkey naming it Anatolia-1 but they too abandoned it after having disputes over payments. Pakistan, which was in desperate need of a satellite, then paid HGS US$4.4 million to relocate Anatolia-1 as Paksat-1 into its only orbital slot left in space.

But why choose to buy a satellite with known, documented problems? Salman Ansari, who was serving as advisor to the Minister of IT&T, and was one of the chief planners of the Paksat-1 program, has this to say: “It saved us money. A typical new geo-stationary satellite can cost around US$250 million. However because of the power pack problem we were getting one for approx. only US$5 million where the service outage during the eclipse period was between 1AM and 3AM PST which are non-peak hours in Pakistan.” When asked whether they had checked other alternatives, his response was: “Of course! We saw dozens of satellite proposals and roamed the whole damn world visiting many different satellite-building firms before agreeing on this one.”

Despite its low price tag, our national pride Paksat-1 is underutilized; according to reports out in the press from the finance ministry early last year, it will continue to face and generate losses for its entire five-year lifespan.

Paksat-1 has 34 fully functional transponders out of which 30 are C-band and 4 are Ku-band transponders.
     
In simplistic terms a transponder is a radio device on board the satellite that transmits signals from one point to another and provides multiple applications such as the Internet Bandwidth, television transmissions etc. However after frequency coordination only about 11 C-band and 2 Ku-band transponders are available for use. According to a financial analysis undertaken on the basis of 11 transponders, the net income recovery from these transponders is expected to meet only 66 percent of the recurring cost. Due to poor hind sight of the planners of the project, the satellite could not be made marketable in its two target regions, the Middle East and African countries as no business plan to sell the transponders of the satellite was made before acquiring the satellite. The result is that currently the only use of this satellite is to transmit two free educational channels for the Virtual University program with plans to provide Internet bandwidth to the universities of the country in the coming months. This under utilization “is costing the government a million rupees per day” according to Mr. Ansari himself who is no longer associated with the Paksat-1 project.

Moreover the satellite didn’t just cost us only US$5 million. In fact, millions of rupees have been spent on the satellite, and millions more will be spent in coming years. US$4.4 million was only the amount paid at the time of signing the contract, which included the infrastructure costs of setting up satellite-controlling equipment at two ground stations. This amount also covered the training of a Pakistani engineer under Hughes at the cost of $50,000. Instead however a whole set of people were sent abroad, the expenses of which are unknown. Additionally, an annual US$2.65 million satellite operation fee and a US$2 million transponder leasing fee is to be paid to HGS for the whole five-year term of the contract. This alone is projected to cost US$23.25 million at the end of five years.

Besides these expenses, millions were also spent on planning and sending delegations over the whole damn world to negotiate deals for this satellite that haven’t been accounted for. Also only last December, the Planning commission had approved a grant worth Rs71.5 million for the feasibility system definition study of Paksat. Infact six months back, the ministry of IT&T also sought Rs.1.85 billion with a foreign exchange component of Rs.1.695 billion from the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for Paksat-1 under which the satellite now operates. All this for a satellite, which has, to date, done nothing more than just beam two free TV channels?!

Paksat-1R is to replace Paksat-1 at the end of its five-year term for which an estimated US$250 million will be pumped into SUPARCO. However a spokesperson for SUPARCO, Lt. Col. Shamim Manazir refused to specify the current amount released by the government for this project. The same spokesperson appeared clueless when asked about how Paksat-1R differs from the current satellite in space and replied: “it will be hi-tech”. When asked to define what he meant by “hi-tech”, he responded: “it means that it will have all the technologies incorporated of that time”. Why, with all the money and resources available to SUPARCO, couldn’t we develop a satellite similar to Paksat-1 in the first place? Mr. Ansari suggested that “the main cause wasn’t whether SUPARCO had skilled enough engineers to build one such satellite; rather it was the lack of seriousness given to the space programme by the government. In fact, even now that we have a satellite for only US$5 million, there are complains that the satellite is worth nothing.” If it was only just US$5 million…