Spectrum given Rs 1,000 cr

The Government and telecom industry will spend Rs 1,000 crore on turning part of the Defence Forces8217; equipment operations on to optical fibre networks, to free roughly 45 MHz of spectrum for telecom services.

8216;8216;We have begun the project involving officials from the Ministry of Telecom and Defence. The Department of Telecom DoT will spend Rs 1,000 crore on it,8217;8217; J. S. Sarma, Secretary, DoT, told reporters at an Assocham conference.

Sarma said that BSNL will be the executing agency for the migration to fibre and that the spectrum released would be allocated to operators to offer 2G and 3G services.

The project will complete in two or three months, Sarma added. A group of ministers led by Defence Minister Pranab Mukharjee is also meant to find ways to meet immediate demands for spectrum from private telcos, but this grouping is yet to meet.