VSAT Service Providers Association (VSPA) of India was formed in 1998. It acts as a central coordinating body representing VSAT Service organisations in India and its associate members from among the satellite communications industry in India and abroad. VSPA is also a founder member of the Global VSAT Forum (GVF), an association with over 80 members from satellite industry and organisations across the world.

One of the major roles of VSPA is to represent and express the views/problems of the VSAT Service Providers, the industry and its users to the Government Departments at the Central, State as well as local levels. We impress upon the Government authorities to seek our views and advice before enacting any legislation.

In the last five years since the inception of VSAT services in India, majority of India's stock exchanges, banks, financial institutions, credit card companies, infrastructure organisations and leading private & public sector companies have started to depend upon this technology because of its reliability (uptime of over 99.5%) and efficiency. However the full potential of this technology has not been utilised partly because of the lack of adequate satellite capacity and partly due to the slow pace of liberalisation by the Government. The population of VSATs in India is merely 2% of the 500,000 numbers the world over. In the recent times our growth rate in India has remained under 15% as compared to around 65% in many other countries.

India today is at the cross-roads in becoming a global leader in IT & Telecommunications. Progressive outlook of the present Government, successful launch of INSAT-3B satellite in March,2000 and allowing use of KU-Band for the first time, harbinger well towards achieving this goal. VSATs are a pivot to the convergence of various technologies, most important of them today, being IT.