The Cabinet Secretary has decided to refer the ongoing rift between the Department of Telecom and the Ministry of Defence, on the issue of spectrum vacation, to an empowered Group of Ministers.

The decision comes in the wake of a threat handed out by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) earlier this month that it will stop spectrum vacation because the Department of Telecom has not fulfilled its commitments under an agreement signed in 2009.

Vacating spectrum

The agreement between the DoT and the Defence Ministry was done to ensure that the defence forces vacated spectrum for 3G auction. Under the MoU, the Defence Ministry had agreed to vacate 25 MHz spectrum in the 3G spectrum and 20 MHz in the 2G band in phases.

In return, the DoT had committed to set up an exclusive defence band and defence interest zone for the armed forces. DoT was to also commission an optical fibre cable (OFC) network at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore, to be built by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, for the defence services.

Also, the Finance Ministry was to waive the spectrum fee of around Rs 10,000 crore payable by the Defence Ministry.

Promises not kept

While work on the OFC has started, other promises made to the Defence Ministry are still on paper. The Defence Ministry had written to the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, that although the defence had kept its part of the deal, the DoT has not adhered to even one of the promises made.

“The Ministry of Communications has not been able to adhere to even one of its commitments despite several efforts by this Ministry. The matter was accordingly taken up by the Defence Secretary in the High-Level Monitoring Committee (HLMC) chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.

“The decisions taken by this Committee have also not been fulfilled by the MoC, even though the MoD has honoured the decisions,” said a letter from the Defence Minister, Mr A. K. Antony, to the Finance Ministry.

Highly placed sources said that the matter will now be placed before the eGoM headed by the Finance Minister. This is not the first time matters related to spectrum vacation has been sent to the eGoM. In 2009, when the DoT and the MoD could not arrive at vacating spectrum for 3G services, the issue was finally resolved by the eGoM.

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