In what may be seen as an effort to get ahead of cutting edge competition, Galileo India has incorporated VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) systems into its network, enabling the Indian travel industry for the first time to exchange information over the satellite. These new inducements will enable smaller travel agencies, with little infrastructure, based in remotest part of the country to gain access to Galileo’s huge information database. GPRS will provide instant connections without any dial-up or modem connection. This will be a major lead over circuit switched data system, currently in use by most other GDS companies in the country, owing to its faster data transmission speed.

Commenting on the advantage of VSAT, Seema Luthra, general manager, Galileo India said, “Satellite networks are much less costly to deploy, maintain and operate than the terrestrial network technologies. Further, satellite transmissions hold major grip over traditional terrestrial transmission as it provides unmatched reliability with far fewer points of failures because they have built-in redundancy to limit service interruptions when problems occur.”