Private cellular and fixed line operators on Monday demanded direct inter-connectivity with Bharat Sanchar Nigam's Ltd cellular services (CellOne) and in this regard met the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

"We presented our views to the regulator seeking direct connectivity," an official of the Cellular Operators' Association of India said.

"We have been demanding for a long time now that since BSNL is a large cellular operator, it should have direct connectivity with other cellular as well as private fixed line operators because it helps improve the quality of service, bring in equitable conditions between the two, and there is the consumer interest as well," a cellular company official said.

If you don't go directly, the consumer pays more, he said. "Our stand is that there should be a direct inter-connection. BSNL is saying that either it would be direct or transit, you can't have both. If for some reason like earthquake, the direct connectivity fails, there will be total breakdown of the network," another cellular operator said.

BSNL officials declined to comment on their stand.

Currently, "BSNL cellular calls come through its public switched telephone network or PSTN connectivity, which directly affects quality of service and these links should be direct as we have with other cellular operators," they said, adding the transit that they are doing now should be at the request of the operators seeking it.

Cellular operators say that the existing links have been taken at the cost of private operators.

"When the calls are routed through their PSTN, BSNL gets additional element of transit charge of 20 paise and this is a burden on the private cellular operators," one of the operators said.

Earlier this transit charge was Rs 1.14.