While the Army is making progress in fielding its own mobile network in a couple of years under the Mobile Cellular Communications System (MCCS) and also contemplating a cloud network for its rank and file, basic concerns still persist with continued reliance on imports for hardware and software.
As part of a major drive towards enabling a digital army, the Army is also envisaging setting up a private virtual drive for its personnel to access information anywhere and reduce dependency on open platforms.
Currently one of the corps, the largest mobile formation in the Army, has been fully equipped with the army mobile network based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology being built by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), while another corps has acquired 70-80 per cent. Three more corps have been sanctioned the network, Army sources said. All the five corps are in forward areas and the process will be completed by 2017-18.
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Special handsets are being built by BEL for this purpose and the MCCS will enable transfer of large volumes of data including pictures and real-time updates. Experts said CDMA is near impossible to snoop and, in addition, the handsets are frequency hopping to prevent interference.