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Rediff.com  » Business » BSNL to fund spectrum project

BSNL to fund spectrum project

Source: PTI
April 26, 2006 18:06 IST
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Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will pretty much foot the entire bill of a Rs 1,000-crore (Rs 10-billion) project to release 45 Mhz of spectrum from defence to civilian use, after providing the armed forces alternative equipment for their communication needs.

The project conceived by the Department of Telecom aims at transferring the armed forces' wireless communication operations to Optical Fibre Cable, which would release 45 MHz of spectrum -- a key but scarce resource for the telecom industry -- on various bands including the 1,900 Mhz band to enable Third Generation Mobile Services.

With DoT budgeting only Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) as its own contribution to the project in 2006-07, BSNL will have to bear the major share, the telecom department officials said, adding that the telecom PSU would be the executing agency of the project.

In fact, BSNL's optical fibre network would be used to carry out the armed forces' wireless operations.

The DoT officials, however, said the entire cost sharing between DoT and BSNL is still under discussion and the exact amount to be provided by BSNL is yet to be worked out.

But BSNL will have to provide most of the amount directly or indirectly.

Officials said the much-awaited spectrum policy of the government covering key issues like allocation and pricing is likely to come up in July.

Efforts were on to announce the policy in June-July and concurrently, the department would be pursuing the discussions with Defence Ministry to expedite the release of spectrum by making the armed forces shift to alternative bands.

The project envisages laying an exclusive optical fibre
cable network for the armed forces, linking crucial establishments across the country, which will enable it to shift of its communication from the existing wireless mode to a more efficient fibre network.

The entire process may take six months, they said. 

DoT  officials said to get spectrum vacated from defence services, it can go ahead with its own plan of action if it is yielding results of mutual agreement. A high-powered Group of Ministers under Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has been formed on the issue and it is yet to conduct its first meeting on this issue.

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