Defiant cellular operators are set to take on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India by not obeying its order to interconnect with limited mobility operators.

The cell firms, which have been ordered by Trai to give a compliance report, feel they are on a strong legal wicket on the issue.

A senior cellular industry representative said: "For the benefit of the 10 million cellular subscribers the cellular operators have decided to defy the Trai order, which is unfair, arbitrary and issued without proper discussion with the industry. We are on a strong wicket legally and challenge the regulator to explain its decision in public."

Industry sources said the cell operators were seeking legal opinion on the matter and might approach the courts.

Cell firms are also planning to meet consumer groups and organise public forums in the coming week to garner support against the Trai order.

Trai had ordered all cell firms to offer interconnection with WLL operators after a complaint from  Tata Teleservices.

"Forget conducting negotiations or discussion with the industry on this issue, Trai has not even bothered to verify whether the complaints of WLL operators are true. They should have at least given us a hearing," an executive of a Delhi-based cellular firm said.

The controversy over interconnection was raked up after the cell firms said they were prepared to interconnect with the WLL operators only if an access charge of Rs 1.20 per three minutes was paid to them.

Such a charge is already being paid to WLL operators by cellular service providers.

However, WLL operators said that while the terms and conditions could be worked out later, cell firms must provide interconnection as otherwise WLL mobility users could not make a call to cell subscribers.

According to the cell operators, Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion)  will be spent by their consumers in paying access charges to basic operators by the end of the financial year.

In some cases, access charges increase the cell tariffs by up to 50 per cent.