The industry panel set up by Communications Minister Arun Shourie on Friday is likely to consider a converged licence allowing wireless-in-local loop operators to offer mobile telephony services after paying an entry fee.
According to government sources, the proposal has found favour both with Reliance and Bharti, the principal antagonists in the cellular-limited mobility war.
The committee, set up to resolve the WLL controversy, will meet on Monday in Sanchar Bhawan.
The sources said companies like Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices could be permitted to offer full mobility across the country at entry fees benchmarked to those paid by the fourth cellular operators in each cellular telephony circle.
The entry fee could add up to Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) for a national licence, they added.
However, the negotiations beginning Monday will not be smooth, the differences are too wide. To keep control over the charged-up proceedings, the committee is likely to elect Vinod Vaish, secretary, department of telecommunications, as its chairman.
Basic telephony operators will be represented by Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries; S Ramakrishnan, managing director, Tata Teleservices; and Prakash Bajpai, vice-president, Association of Basic Telecom Operators.
The cellular companies will be represented by Sunil Mittal, chairman, Bharti group; and Rajiv Chandrashekhar, chairman, BPL. Prithipal Singh, chairman, BSNL, is also in the committee.
While the basic telephony operators are expected to fight for a low entry fee, claiming the licence fee paid by cellular operators for circles in 1995 was far lower than what they paid for WLL licences, cellular firms will try to get the maximum mileage out of the government in terms of lower revenue sharing and enhanced spectrum allocation before agreeing to such a proposal.
The communications ministry has indicated that the convergence of licences is the only solution to the two-year-old battle.
"Both sides realise there is no question of a rollback of the WLL policy. But since the discussion will be spearheaded by industry leaders like Ambani and Mittal, a solution should emerge," the sources said.
The panel is expected to submit its report by March 1, 2003.
