Opposing the unification of basic and cellular licences cleared by the group of ministers on telecom on Thursday, cellular operators may move the court in case the Cabinet cleared the GoM's decision.

According to sources in the cellular industry, the mood in the industry was to pursue legal recourse if the Cabinet decided to clear the GoM's decision.

On the other hand, Reliance Infocomm welcomed the decision of the GoM endorsing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations on moving towards a unified telecom licence.

"Reliance Infocomm strongly believes that upon ratification of the GoM's report by the Union Cabinet, the Indian consumers can finally be freed from the confusion prevailing in the telecom sector," a statement by Reliance said in New Delhi.

Cellular Operators Association of India in its statement said, "The industry is deeply disheartened and disappointed to learn the decision of the GoM to accept in toto the recomendations of Trai on unified licencing."

"It is truly unfortunate that an industry that has invested Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) in setting up a world class cellular infrastructure and is serving over 18 million subscribers, is now being treated in such a cavalier manner, to accommodate the WLL mobile players, one of who had admittedly garnered huge subscriber base of 5 million customers in a blatantly illegal manner by ignoring all conditions of policy and licence," it said.

Meanwhile, the Association of Basic Telecom Operators welcomed the GoM's decision saying unification of licence was the best method of increasing the teledensity and accelerating the growth of telecom in India.