The Indian Space Research Organization has teamed up with France's Eads/Astrium to challenge the US predominance in the 4 kilowatts satellite payloads with a launch mass of 2-3 tons. The US based Orbital Sciences Corp enjoys a monopoly in this segment making the cost of communication that much more expensive. This new partnership using Indian platforms and European payloads are not encumbered by technology bans by the US and is expected to push communication costs lower.