DBS IN UNISPACE 1982 As a United States Delegate and a Legal Advisor, I had the privilege of serving on the U.S. Delegation to UNISPACE 1982 and making a study of the United Nations Draft Report for UNISPACE 1982 (A/Conf. 101/3 dated 20 April 1982). It states in certain most pertinent parts as follows: Reception of satellite-relayed television programmes by specially augmented television receivers is now a well proven application. Though the U.S.S.R. is at present the only country with an operational system, other countries — including Canada, Japan, India, the United States and, in ajoint venture, the Federal Republic of Germany and France — have carried out experiments and many are now planning operational domestic systems. This is obviously an application with tremendous possibilities, especially for education — in the broadest sense of the term — and as a means of accelerating development. Operational use of the 12 GHz Broadcast Satellite Service is likely to be introduced soon. This, together with the future utilization of the 30/20 GHz band, will make it possible to use receivers having parabolic antennae of the order of one meter diameter and possibly even smaller. Advances in low-noise receivers have also made possible comparatively small (3-4 m antenna), low-cost systems for reception of television broadcasts in the 4 GHz band. These are widely used for television networking in North America. Radio and television have been used as educational tools for many years. Radio has the advantages of wide reach, low cost and can be used even in unelectrified locations; despite this, and notwithstanding the fairly extensive radio coverage even in developing countries, radio has not yet been fully exploited for educational purposes. However, it does have the constraint of being only an aural medium. Television, on the other hand, can be an extremely powerful instrument for spreading education. Until recently, its use was constrained by the fact that reception of the broadcasts was possible only within about 100 km of a transmitter. Thus, to broadcast television programmes to a given area, one had to set up a television station nearby, or set up a television transmitter and link it to a television studio or station. Now, however, space technology has made possible the reception of television programmes, even in very remote areas, without the need for a television station nearby or ground links. The technology of direct broadcast satellites has been demonstrated by Canada, Japan and the United States, and a large-scale educational television experiment using the ATS-6 satellite of the United States was carried out in India in 1975/76. Some other countries also have carried out experiments involving the reception of satellite-relayed television programmes by specially agumented television receivers. Canada now has an experimental DBS system, and many countries or groups of countries are planning operational DBS systems. A DBS system basically uses the principle of “complexity inversion,” so that simple and inexpensive receiving equipment on the ground is made possible by a powerful and complex satellite. Obviously, such a satellite is expensive, and. therefore, the economics of a DBS system are dependent to a large degree on the number of receiving stations on the ground. There are, of course, a large number of other variables — including, in particular, the frequency band used and the EIRP of a satellite — and the cost of the receiving equipment is largely determined by these. However, it seems clear that a DBS system becomes worthwhile only if it serves a fairly large number of receivers. Many systems for direct-to-home television broadcasting are being proposed and planned. Selection of an appropriate reception mode, either individual or community, will be determined by the specific characteristics of each country. For the developing countries, emphasis may be put more on the community mode of reception. At the same time, it would seem economically attractive and beneficial for small countries to share a satellite, especially on a regional basis. Another possibility is an internationally-owned satellite that provides direct broadcast service to countries. In both cases, there could be transponders dedicated to each particular country, or countries could share a transponder, depending upon their usage. Differing time-zones could also enable a sharing of transponders, if the use was limited to a few hours only and the countries were
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