Union Minister Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia: BSNL Offers Global Satellite Phone Service to Public and Enterprises Since 2018
Union Minister of Communications and Development of North Eastern Region Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia today gave the following reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
BSNL provides Voice Call and SMS services through Global Satellite Phone Service (GSPS) to General Public and Private Enterprises w.e.f. 01.01.2018.
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) issued the instructions vide letter dated 12.06.2017 in respect of provision of Satellite based services, which inter-alia mandated that BSNL is required to complete the Customer Acquisition Process prescribed for mobile connections, as amended from time to time. BSNL shall also obtain from the subscriber the details such as place of use, period of use and the purpose for which Satellite handset shall be used. Additionally, the GSPS service is inherently a secure communication as information is transferred in encrypted form.
BSNL provides only voice and SMS services through GSPS. The details of Tariff Plan for GSPS are attached as Annexure-I.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is an independent authority for regulation of tariff for telecommunication services in India. As per the extant regulatory tariff provisions, tariff for telecommunication service is under forbearance except for services such as National Roaming, Rural Fixed Line Services, mobile number portability charges and leased circuits. ‘Nil’ tariff has been prescribed for Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) services to promote financial inclusion etc. among rural unbanked feature phone users.
Annexure-I
Tariff Plan for Global Satellite Phone Services (w.e.f. 01.01.2026)
- Post-paid Plans
|
|
|
Government
|
Commercial
|
| |
|
Plan G1
|
Plan G2
|
Plan C1
|
|
1
|
Fixed Monthly Charges (₹)
|
3,500
|
5,835
|
11,670
|
|
2
|
Free Talk Time (in minutes) or SMS
|
16
|
30
|
60
|
- Pre-Paid Plans
|
|
|
Government
|
Commercial
|
| |
|
Plan G1 (Monthly)
|
Plan GA (Annual)
|
Plan C1 (Monthly)
|
Plan CA (Annual)
|
|
1
|
Plan charges (₹)
|
3,500
|
38,500
|
5,835
|
64,185
|
|
2
|
Free Talk Time (in minutes) or SMS
|
20
|
240
|
30
|
360
|
- After the free talk time and SMS are over than additional Call/SMS charges are required to be paid by the subscribers at the rate of
· ₹ 18 /min/SMS for Government customers.
- ₹ 25 /min/SMS for Commercial customers.
D. Additional Recharges/Top-ups for pre-paid plans are available in denominations of (₹) 200/500/1000/5000/10000.
(*All charges above are excluding GST)
(LS-STARRED QUESTION NO. 176; 11-02-2026)
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MI/ARJ