Kapil Sibal, Minister of Telecommunications and IT, has asked the Ministry of Defence to vacate spectrum, as per the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two ministries.
However, if no action is taken, it is believed that Sibal may request the empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) to step in to resolve this and other pending issues.
Both ministries had signed an MoU two years ago and both were supposed to achieve certain targets in a time-bound manner.
However, the Ministry of Defence plans to give DoT only 150 Mhz of spectrum and retain the rest. It is believed that DoT had asked the Ministry of Defence to vacate 230 Mhz of spectrum for it, retain 70 Mhz in civilian areas and allot all 300 Mhz in urban areas.
As per the MoU, the Ministry of Defence had agreed to vacate 25 MHz of 3G spectrum and 20 MHz of 2G spectrum in phases. In return, the DoT had said it would establish an exclusive defence band and defence interest zone for the armed forces.
DoT was to also commission an optic fibre cable network, to be built by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, for the defence services. Also, the finance ministry was to waive the spectrum fee of around Rs 100 billion, payable by the Ministry of Defence.
The Ministry has vacated the 15 MHz of 3G spectrum, auctioned in 2010 and 15 MHz of 2G spectrum allocated to new operators. Under the agreement, the remaining spectrum is to be vacated only after the optic fibre cable network is completed.
