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Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi, Nov. 9 With just two months left for 3G auction, the Ministry of Communication and the Defence Ministry are putting together a plan of action for getting the spectrum vacated by the armed forces in a phased manner.

According to the proposal being finalised, the Telecom Ministry may agree to build an optical fibre cable system for the Army and Navy in addition to the one being rolled out for the Air Force. The Defence Ministry, on its part, could agree to give the Department of Telecom two-three years to complete the network for the Army and Navy.

According to the proposal, only the radio frequency being used by the Air Force will be vacated by December, since it has the major chunk of the spectrum.

For this the cable network being built by BSNL at a cost of over Rs 1,000 crore will be handed over to the Air Force by March next year. BSNL will lay a cable network connecting 162 Air Force sites across the country. Of this, 25 have been completed and another 88 will be done by December 2008.

At present, there is a shortage of 3G spectrum in nine circles including Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat and West Bengal. The shortage will be eased once the Air Force releases the spectrum after moving its communication to the new cable network. For the Army and Navy, a network of 40,000 route km will be rolled out connecting 270 locations. DoT has also offered the Army two options for laying the network — one of which is at a cost of Rs 14,250 crore over a three-year period.

Earlier, the defence forces were insisting that the Telecom Ministry should build an alternative medium of communication for all the three wings of armed forces simultaneously.

However, DoT had refused to build a network for the Army and Navy on the grounds that they had only a small portion of spectrum.

Out of the 45 Mhz spectrum under consideration, the Air Force has 42.5 Mhz. DoT had not agreed to a network for the Army and Navy because it will cost upwards of Rs 5,000 crore for getting just 2.5 Mhz spectrum.

The standoff between the two Ministries had threatened to delay the launch of 3G services in the country prompting the Prime Minister to set up a Group of Ministers headed by the External Affairs Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee. A committee under the National Security Advisor was also set up to resolve the issue.

The NSA had directed that the spectrum will be released by the defence services after a concrete action is initiated on the alternative optical fibre cable network. The GoM is expected to meet next week to ratify the action plan.

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