The government is considering providing a dedicated Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) network to the defence forces in place of the spectrum released by them for civilian usage, defence minister AK Antony said. “Government is considering a nationwide exclusive, dedicated Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) Network for armed forces in lieu of spectrum being released by them,” defence minister AK Antony said in reply to a Rajya Sabha query.

Last year, the telecom ministry had signed a MoU with the Ministry of Defence to hand over 45 MHz of spectrum, which included 25 MHz for 3G services.

To compensate for the loss, the telecom ministry had agreed to provide fiber cable networks for the armed forces through the country at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore. The telecom ministry had also agreed to a waiver of Rs 938 crore to the defence ministry and agreed to allocate 30 percent of all frequencies in the non-communication links.