Cellular operators are against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India imposing access deficit charges because these will increase tariffs. They said if the charges were imposed on them, WLL operators should be covered as well.

This is the stand taken by cellular services firms on the consultation paper on interconnect charges issued by Trai on Thursday. Their disapproval will make the review of the interconnect charges a rough affair.

Basic operators have different views on issues like the calling-party-pays regime and access deficit charges. They, including Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, are in favour of imposing access deficit charges on all service providers to lower fixed line tariffs.

They are also against the calling-party-pays regime because it has hiked fixed-to-cell tariffs by 200 per cent.

On the other hand, cellular operators said they would oppose any attempt by the regulator to end the free incoming regime for mobile users.

"We are going to raise two issues: first, there will be no review of free incoming calls, and second, the terms should be uniform for cellular and WLL operators," an executive with a cellular services firm said.

Access deficit charges were introduced by Trai to subsidise the below-cost tariffs charged by fixed line operators. Until now, the charges were levied only on long-distance fixed-to-fixed calls. The amount prescribed by Trai ranged between 50 paise a minute to Rs 1.50, depending on the distance called.

Fixed line operators had to charge a minimum of Rs 2 a minute, and with margins added, the calls became more expensive than those on cell phones.

To balance this, Trai has suggested a formula by which access deficit charges will be imposed on long-distance calls made even on cellular phones. The amount collected will be passed on to fixed line operators for providing below-cost tariffs, making basic connections more affordable.

However, cellular tariffs will go up because users will have to pay additional charges.

Cellular services firms pointed out that the Centre was not hiking BSNL tariffs due to political pressure and was claiming access deficit charges for it as well.

"Why should we have to pay for decisions taken out of political compulsions? If BSNL has had a deficit, it was also given the opportunity to increase tariffs.

Since the government didn't allow BSNL to make up the deficit through a tariff hike, it compensates by asking us to pay," an executive with a cellular operator said.