The government has garnered over Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) from basic telecom players for conversion of their WLL services into fully mobile telephony within three days of issuance of guidelines for single licence regime, with Tatas paying Rs 545 crore (Rs 5.45 billion) on Friday.

Tatas today made the payment for migration in four of its existing circles -- Gujarat and Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Delhi -- two days after Reliance paid Rs 1,542 crore (Rs 15.42 billion) for the conversion of the services.

Tata Teleservices, which has already acquired letter of intent for basic licence in four circles, has also applied for seven new unified licences. Acquiring a unified licence in all these circles would cost the company about Rs 418 crore (Rs 4.18 billion).

For the other two existing circles, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, Tatas had applied to DoT on Thursday for migration, although it would not be required to pay any additional entry fee.

The rush for migration to the new regime has seen even smaller regional players like HFCL and Shyam making a beeline at the department of telecom counters.

"We have received requests from HFCL and Shyam Telelink for migration to unified regime. While Shyam has paid Rs 2.96 crore (Rs 29.6 million) for migrating to the new regime in Rajasthan circle, HFCL Infotel was not required to pay any additional entry fee for migration in its existing Punjab circle," DoT secretary Vinod Vaish told PTI.