The Department of Telecom has told state-run BSNL to stick to the timeline of completion of the defence network rollout by 2013 and place the equipment order for the same by July-end.

In a meeting last week, BSNL, which is the coordinator for the project, informed DoT that it has issued the tender for the network for the Navy and the Army and will place equipment order by the end of July or early August.

The network set up by BSNL would facilitate release of 42.5 Mhz spectrum which would be used for rolling out 3G and 2G mobile services.

A senior DoT official said the PSU has already completed testing of the Air Force alternate network for those sites where the force had given specifications and is ready to place equipment order by August maximum.

BSNL has already issued the tender for network for the Army and the Navy and will place the order next month. The entire exercise is running as per schedule which will complete in 2013.

The government had earlier approved Rs 9,175.16 crore for setting up a nationwide dedicated and security exclusive optical fibre cable network for the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. This will provide a dedicated and secure communication network throughout the country to meet security concerns.

The alternate optic fibre network for the Army and the Navy is bigger than that for the Air Force and would need the bulk of the investment of the project.

Last May, the DoT had signed an MoU with the Defence Ministry to set up this dedicated network. The implementation of this project will be undertaken by BSNL.

But the successful bidders in just concluded 3G spectrum auction would get radio waves in September from existing resources, not from this project, said the official.