Telecom operators are against the four methods of implementation of the proposed interconnect charges. The norms were suggested by a technical committee appointed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, and the charges were supposed to be imposed from May 1.

The options offered by the committee were technically and commercially unviable, operators said.

Trai is expected to decide on the implementation of interconnect charges in the next few days. It had earlier proposed a revenue-sharing formula, with the revenues divided between the originator, the carrier and the terminator of a telephone call.

However, the network of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is unable to differentiate between a fixed-line call and a wireless-in-local-loop call. With Trai prescribing different revenue-sharing formulas for fixed-line and WLL calls, the differentiation is more complex. Hence, if BSNL cannot distinguish calls, fixed-line operators may lose revenue.

According to one of the options given by the technical committee, BSNL can charge all long-distance calls terminating in basic networks uniformly as applicable to fixed-line calls.

While this option does away with the need to differentiate between WLL and fixed-line calls, it is beyond the regulations for interconnect charges and takes away the distinction in the revenue-share formula prescribed by Trai.

Fixed-line operators  may agree to the option if they are paid for terminating calls on a WLL network, but cellular operators will not accept it.

Another option allows operators to route their WLL and fixed-line calls to BSNL on two different trunks, but this is not acceptable to basic operators.