BSNL To Roll Out Rs 4,771 Crore Cable Network For Defence

BSNL To Roll Out Rs 4,771 Crore Cable Network For Defence
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will roll out an 4,771-crore optic fibre cable network for the army and navy by February next year.

A 60,000-km optic fibre network is at the heart of the 13,334-crore alternate communications backbone that BSNL will build for the army and naval forces over the next two years. Purchase orders for optic fibre cable gear will be placed in two months, the note showed.

In an internal presentation to the telecom department, BSNL has indicated it will also roll out a 2,611-crore IP or ‘internet protocol’ network for the defence ministry by next June. This apart, it will place orders for 1,300 crore .

In an April 15 memo to DoT, the defence ministry had complained that while it had already vacated 40 MHz of airwaves back in 2009 for commercial wireless telephony, BSNL had failed to build the alternate communications backbone within 36 months. The project deadline has since been extended to July 2015. source: http://egov.eletsonline.com/