Hyderabad: Despite all the hype about its success, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is a commercial failure; it appears from a global survey of satellite operators who provide telephone and television services.

ISRO, that has been launching INSAT communication satellites for nearly two decades, does not even figure in the list of top 20 satellite operators ranked on the basis of gross annual revenue earned.

In contrast, countries like Thailand, Spain, South Korea, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and even Mexico, which launched their space proogrammes years after India find a place in the list compiled by "Spynews", an authoritative source on international space developments published from Washington.

While the Brazilian operator earned $ 130.5 million in 2001 Arabsat of Saudi Arabia earned $ 155 million and Mexico, with just two geostationary satellites, grossed $ 132.4 million and was ranked 13 in the "Top-20" chart.

The United States based Intelsat retains its position as the world's largest commercial provider ($1.1 billion) followed by PanAmSat ($ 870.1 million), SES Astra of Luxembourg ($ 655.5 million) and Eutelsat of France ($ 593.5 million).

Russian operator is last in the list with revenue of $ 61 million and ISRO with a fleet of five satellites does not figure at all.

ISRO officials declined to comment on the global survey but admitted that no study on the cost effectiveness of the Indian communication satellites has been done. Such a study was carried out in the case of remote sensing satellites but ISRO has kept the report secret.

PTI