The government has decided to set up a six-member group of ministers on telecommunications, headed by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, to resolve the spat between cellular and basic operators over wireless in local loop limited mobility services.

The group, approved by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is likely to be notified in the next few days.

Other ministers in the group include Communications Minister Arun Shourie, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Defence Minister George Fernandes, Law Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha.

The primary objective of the group will be to resolve the deadlock over allowing full mobility to basic operators, with the department of telecommunications and basic operators on one side and cellular operators on the other.

The group will look into the demands made by telecom service providers, including migration to a unified licensing regime, providing more spectrum for wireless communication, increasing foreign direct investment in telecom from 49 per cent to 74 per cent, allowing cellular operators to offer long-distance services and ways to meet rural telephony targets.

The group is also likely to look at the recent judgment handed out by the telecom disputes tribunal on WLL limited mobility and ways to implement it. This is the second ministerial group being set up on telecom following the controversial decision to allow limited mobility to basic operators.

The earlier group was headed by Yashwant Sinha, the then finance minister, and included bureaucrats like former vigilance commissioner N Vittal and finance secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The move comes after weeks of hectic parleying by industry representatives seeking the Prime Minister's intervention on various wrangles in the sector.