The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal on Monday permitted Bharat Sanchar Nigan Ltd and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd to go for downward revision of tariff of their cellular services without referring the proposals to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

"Since TDSAT has allowed us not to refer to Trai for downward revision, BSNL and MTNL officials are discussing how to slash tariff rates of CellOne and Dolphin," a key BSNL official said.

The two State-owned telecom majors had approached TDSAT over a Trai order making it mandatory for them to get prior approval for its tariff structure.

Trai had in its order withdrawn itself from setting tariffs for mobile services, saying that the market has matured and market forces will decide the tariff.

However, Trai had asked those cellular services providers, who provide basic services, national long distance services and international long distance services in the same service area in which they provide cellular mobile service, to report to the regulator for approval of new tariff structure at least five working days before its implementation.

UNI