• India
  • May 11

Explainer / Network Operation and Control Center (NOCC) under DoT

To enhance ease of doing business, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has removed Network Operation and Control Center (NOCC) charges for the use of space segments for all services like VSAT, satellite telephony, etc for which permits are issued by the department. 

Under the NOCC levy regime, introduced in 2003, the DoT levied Rs 21 lakh per transponder per annum for 36 megahertz of spectrum on a pro-rata basis as NOCC charges. Besides this, the department also levied NOCC charges of Rs 6,000 for every trial of antenna that are used for receiving and transmitting signals.

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 licence. 

Network Operations Control Center (NOCC)

• The Department of Telecom (DoT) performs certain regulatory and enforcement functions in the domain of satellite communications through its Network Operations Control Center (NOCC).

• The NOCC was created to control the transmissions from ground segment (satellite earth stations) along with the master control facility under the Department of Space to manage the operation of satellites in orbit.

• NOCC has endeavoured to provide interference free environment to various satellite users in the country while providing mandatory clearances within three working days to applicant agencies.

• The offices of NOCC are located in Delhi, Gurugram and Sikandrabad.

Functions of NOCC:

• Online operational control, coordination regulation of space segment usage and monitoring of all the satellite based services like VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) applications, broadcasting, DTH (Direct-ToHome), HITs (Head-end in the Sky), ISP (Internet Service Provider), etc in India.

• Handling contingency operations in case of failure of transponders/satellites.

• Providing RF Interference solutions and coordinating with different satellite administration for the resolution of the interference problem.

• Mandatory Performance Verifications Testing of all the ground segment satellite earth station antenna for conforming to latest ITU/TEC standards before permitting them to be put in operations.

• Testing of ISP satellite gateways and monitoring of transmissions from these gateways.

• Testing & clearance of teleports of TV broadcasters and Direct to Home (DTH) service providers.

• Testing and clearance of Digital News gathering (DSNG) vans used for live gathering.

• Testing of satellite transponder before accepting for operations.

• Spot frequency allocations and carrier plan approval to all the INSAT users and foreign satellite users for broadcasting/ DTH/ DSNG, NLD and ILD services (VSAT).

• Verification/implementation of license conditions as and when called upon by the Licensing Cell of DoT.

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Notes