The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is planning to send reminders to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Reliance Infocomm to base their revised tariffs on the interconnect usage charges regime prescribed by the regulator.

This development follows the regulator asking cellular operators Bharti Televentures, Hutchison and the Birla-Tata-AT&T combine to put on hold their reduced tariffs for national and international long-distance calls, which were announced last week.

Trai had sent a notice to the three cell firms yesterday asking them to list the lower costs on the basis of which they proposed to cut tariffs. Cell firms had brought down their airtime charges from Rs 2.40 a minute to as low as 50 paise a minute.

The cellular operators wrote to Trai and justified the 80 per cent reduction in airtime tariffs for STD and ISD calls on the ground that they were facing stiff competition from BSNL and Reliance.

Senior Trai officials said BSNL and Reliance would not be allowed to carry on with the existing tariffs. "If they think that they can carry on without submitting new tariffs then they are mistaken. We will send them a reminder tomorrow. If they do not respond, we will have to take action," they added.

While BSNL had completely waived airtime charges on STD, Reliance was charging only 40 paise per minute.

Industry sources said Reliance would submit the new tariff package to the telecom regulator in the next couple of days. Senior Reliance executives also met  Trai officials on Tuesday to discuss the issue. Trai had earlier indicated that Reliance's STD charges of 40 paise a minute could come under scrutiny if it did not change the offer before May 1, the day the new tariffs based on IUC come into effect.

The regulator had said that tariffs announced by any operator should not be discriminatory in nature.

Reliance will charge 40 paise a minute for STD calls within its own network, while charging Rs 4.80 per minute for calls made to any other operators' network.

Though Reliance claimed it was following all the norms prescribed by Trai, competing cellular operators demanded the regulator's intervention.