New Delhi: The Department of Telecom will
approach Cabinet shortly seeking allocation of Rs 10,000 crore
to prepare an optical fibre network for defence forces in the
next three years in lieu of release of spectrum for mobile
services.
A senior DoT official said efforts are on to seek the
Cabinet approval for Rs 10,000 crore allocations as soon as
possible to prepare the OFC.
In a meeting, chaired by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandra
Sekhar, yesterday, the progress on optical fibre project was
discussed and DoT was asked to seek Cabinet approval as soon
as possible to get it going. National Knowledge Commission
Chairman Sam Pitroda was also present in the meeting.
DoT and the Defence Ministry had signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) under which the latter was supposed to
release 45 MHz of 3G spectrum. Of this, the Defence released
10 Mhz of spectrum last month.
The MoU follows at least two years of negotiations. It
entails vacation of spectrum by the defence forces once DoT
builds an alternative optical fibre cable (OFC) network for
them.
DoT has asked BSNL and MTNL to build OFC, the cost of
which will be reimbursed by the department.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, November 13, 2009, 19:31