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BANGALORE: If your TV screen suddenly goes blank, don't always blame the channel or the cable operator. The blackout may also have been caused by overcrowding of outer space with too many satellites leading to ‘signal interference'.

Satellite operators from around the world are in Bangalore to find ways to reduce this interference to their expensive transponders.

Since January this year, over 558 interferences on communication satellites have been recorded worldwide. A study by Satellite

Users Interference Reduction Group (SUIRG), a global body of satellite operators, suggested in 2001, satellite operators were losing millions of dollars in revenue per annum due to radio frequency interference.

"With the advent of very small aperture terminals (VSATs) for communication from remote places and the presence of more powerful and more sensitive satellites in orbit, the interference has also multiplied," SUIRG Chairman R James Budden said. Too many satel

lites up in the space mean too many signals that they relay to earth crisscross or overlap, causing interferences. As if that wasn't enough, worries scientists, "human errors" make the phenomenon worse.