APRSAF Secretariat attended the 8th International Forum on Advanced Satellite Communications in the Asia-Pacific Region organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan (MIC) on 28 November and had interviews with Mr. Raj K. Bajaj, Regional Director of Asia Pacific Huges Network Systems India Ltd, India and Dr. Sugihartono, Associate Professor of the Electrical Engineering Dept of Bandung Institute Technology Indonesia. Mr. Bajaj and Dr. Sugihartono took part in the forum as panelists and speakers.

Interviews were about their impression on this forum and their hope for WINDS. They told us that WINDS would be of initiatory KA band technology for experiment and could provide a technology for eliminating the geographical digital division in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr. Raj K. Bajaj told us that there is a big need for a government to step into this space to provide a technology to bridge to the rural divide to meet the technology available into the rural area where the terrestrial technology can not reach.

Dr. Sugihartono also told us that this international forum on advanced satellite communications in the Asia-Pacific region gives us wide international experimentation on one of the most advanced satellite communication systems. Because we have speakers and participants from potential user side and manufacturer side and also they are communities and governments.

Movie file (MPEG, 19.9MB)