Network Operation and Control Centre (NOCC) charges

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NOCC levy regime-

• The NOCC levy regime was introduced in 2003, and the DoT levied Rs 21 lakh per transponder every year for 36 MHz of spectrum on a pro-rata basis. 
• Additionally, the government also charged Rs 6,000 for every trial of the antenna that is used for receiving and transmitting signals.
• As per the recent announcement, there shall be no NOCC charges for use of space segment for all DoT licensees for commercial and captive VSAT services, GMPCS (satellite phone service), NLD (national long distance) and other telecom licensees having unified licence or standalone license. 
• With the removal of the NOCC charges for telecom service providers, the Indian satellite broadband space which is attracting foreign entrants as well as established domestic players could increase in viability.

About NOCC-

• The idea of having a domestic geostationary satellite system for India to meet the Telecommunication and TV broadcasting needs of the country was first mooted by Late Dr. Vikram Sarabhai in the 60s. 
• NOCC was created under the DoT to control the transmissions from ground segment, or satellite earth stations, along with the master control facility under the Department of Space to manage the operation of satellites in orbit.
• At the time of operationalisation of INSAT 1A the NOCC functions were carried out by using the Sikandrabad Communications Earth Station Antenna and working from one of the ports of the RF power divider. 
• A seperate NOCC earth station was made available in the first half of 1983 when the limited domestic SATCOM network was working through two leased INTELSAT transponders.
• NOCC provided the network clearances before start of operations from any earth station accessing Satellite and also carried out the Monitoring and on line operational control & coordination.

Functions of NOCC-

• Online Operational control, coordination and Monitoring of all the satellite based services in India .
• Handling Contingency Operations in case of failure of transponder(s)/satellite(s).
• Resolution of RF Interference problems.
• Mandatory Performance Verifications Testing of all the antennae namely providing backbone transmission links, VSATs,DSNG vans, Teleports etc for conforming to latest ITU standards before putting them in operations.
• Career plan approval and uplinking permissions.
• Testing of ISP satellite Gateways & monitoring of transmissions from these gateways.
• Testing of satellite transponder before accepting for operations
• Monitoring of Broadcasters Teleports/DSNG vans.
• Coordination with foreign satellite operators like Thaicom, Intelsat, AsiaSat, PanamSat, Singtel, APSTAR, New Skies which are providing space segment to Indian satellite communication users
• Resolve the problem of interference created by our user(s) or their user(s) to respective satellites
• In-orbit tests of INSAT satellites in coordination with Master Control Facility (MCF) , Hassan
• NOCC provides guidance to almost all the service providers for planning/ commissioning / operation of satellite based Networks
• Spot frequency allocations to all the INSAT users
• Verification & compliance of the terms & conditions of licenses issued by different authorities namely DoT, Ministry of I&B, WPC etc.

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