Government has set aside $500,000 for the development and commercialisation of Bermuda's "satellite assets".

Telecommunications Minister Michael Scott said the Island could earn money by capitalising on orbital slots received nearly three decades ago.

"Bermuda is the beneficiary of three orbital slots which have been assigned by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) since 1983," he said in his Budget brief on Monday. "The Telecommunications Department is currently involved in the development and marketing of this natural and scarce resource. It should be noted that orbital slots are a finite and limited resource available to satellite operators for services around the globe."

A long-standing dispute with the Isle of Man has prevented Bermuda from capitalising on the slots thus far.

Said Mr. Scott: "Bermuda has defied this effort and continues to be a contender to offer satellite telecommunications services to the continental United States of America."

While space allotted to Bermuda could service the eastern seaboard of the US, Mr. Scott admitted that current Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations prevent the Island from selling satellite services to America.

The Opposition expressed scepticism over the initiative. Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons questioned whether Bermuda was gaining any revenue at all.

"I am very curious as I see that we have a total authorised funding of $3.5 million," he said. "In 2008 and 2009 $1.4 million was spent for these satellite orbital slots. We are estimating $500,000 for 2009 and then another $500,000 in this coming Budget year. The very simple question here is what have we got for that money?

"I don't really have a clear sense and I don't think the Bermudian public really has a clear sense of what we have gotten for that $3.5 million of capital expenditure. Have we gotten a dollar out if it yet? Have we gotten any money at all from that particular investment? Don't talk to me about the potential here because I don't get a sense that we have seen very much yet. Realistically when are we likely to see a payback on this?"

In response to Parliamentary Questions posed, Mr. Scott said: "Our efforts are to get a piece of the action and for the modest amount of a half million dollars we are keeping ourselves in this important game. We have been blessed with our location, looking at the United States, so the exploitation of that slot to service an American public is a prospect."

He continued: "But when that [the FCC] policy changes in the United States we would have positioned ourselves to host a satellite operator lodged in our space. The idea is not to launch a satellite ourselves but to gain fees from satellite operators hosted at our sites and it will bring impressive revenue once we get in that position. At the rate of $500,000 keeping us in the game, it's good value."