The Department of Telecommunications is examining the option of hiving off Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) optical fibre (OFC) cable network business into a separate entity.

BSNL has the largest fixed-line infrastructure in the country, with an OFC network of over 600,000 kilometres.

The move is part of the government’s decision to hive off the operators’ various assets including land and tower into separate units. Given that the OFC network is going to play a critical role in delivering high speed internet services in the coming years, the government is hopeful of unlocking the business value of BSNL’s OFC infrastructure by hiving it off in to a separate unit.