Bangalore: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today (Feb 10, 2004) said foreign satellites with excess bandwidth capacity are looking at dumping on Indian skies and dismissed reports that ISRO was charging high rates for the bandwidth it offers.

"Today, yes there are spare capacity available with many of the foreign satellites...they want to dump here. They have tried to cook up a story of that kind," ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair told reporters in Bangalore.

"It is just not so (high rates). In fact, whatever we have got is the cheapest at the time when we finalised the contract. We are the most competitive in the space," Nair said.

Reports say that ISRO rates are up to 50 per cent higher than the bandwidth rates available currently and a slew of foreign satellites with excess transponder capacity are ready to connect VSAT operators, but are bogged down by Government rules, which specify use of Indian satellites.

Nair said ISRO would finalise agreements in the next two to three months to launch commercial satellites of foreign countries.

On reports that Israel has expressed interest to participate in the unmanned Moon mission, Nair said, ISRO had not finalised any proposal.

"We will have to wait and see. If somebody comes with a good proposal, we will consider," Nair said.