The license was issued to GAIL by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Monday afternoon after the signing of the license agreement. With this, GAIL has become the first licensed bandwidth provider in the country for both voice and data services, according to a GAIL release.

It may be recalled that under the National Telecom Policy 1999 declared by the government, GAIL was among the few organisations allowed to lease bandwidth for providing the backbone to basic operators and other telecom service providers. "Of those selected, GAIL has been the first to go ahead with developing connectivity with over 1,800 km of an optical fibre cable network in place. It will commission its first link between New Delhi and Jaipur shortly. GAIL has also commissioned 1,200 km of the 1,800 km network to inter-connect New Delhi and Mumbai," the release said.

Five Indian telecom operators, Bharti Telesonics, BPL Broadband, Shyam Telecom, Escotel Mobiles and DSL Dishnet have already signed MoUs with GAIL for leasing bandwidth capacity. Discussions are currently in progress with other major basic telecom operators. GAIL plans to set up a North West-South broadband cross-country network of around 3,600 km in phases. The network will provide high bandwidth capacity across 11 states, connecting more than 90 cities including three metros and four mini metros.

The network will provide end-to-end capacity to both operators and end users and will enable connectivity to all major international gateways, both satellite and fibre. GAIL also plans as part of the network to set up capacity exchanges.