The private cellular operators have asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to consider fixing the annual licence fee at 6 per cent across all segments, as part of full unification of telecom services.

Favouring a holistic unified licensing regime proposed by Trai, the Cellular Operators Association of India said: "Annual licence fee may be prescribed at 6 per cent of adjusted gross revenue (5 per cent towards universal service and 1 per cent as administrative cost) subject to a minimum fixed levy to deter non-serious players."

COAI, however, proposed that the rollout obligation and imposition of stiff penalties for non-performance should not be attached with the unified licence.

"Past performance has clearly demonstrated that this does not lead to achievement of rollout in rural and remote areas," COAI said, adding this should rather be left to market forces.

It pointed out that the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd would be in a position to achieve the rollout in rural areas using the access to USO Fund. BSNL, it said, should also be given some special privileges for undertaking this social responsibility.

COAI said the benefit of 2 per cent reduction in revenue share licence fee to the cellular operators for four years, should not be disturbed even under the new regime.

With a view to keep the prices of services affordable, COAI proposed that the concept of financial bank guarantees "should be reviewed and done away with as they only add to the cost to the end consumers."

COAI said the issue of harmonisation of foreign direct investment limit also needs to be considered by Trai.

"Trai must adopt a two-tier structure for service area classification -- circle and all India. However, based on the principle that registration charges should only cover the cost of processing and issuing the licence, the charges for an all India licence should only be marginally higher so as not to discourage the operators to go for a larger footprint," COAI said.

It said circle-based player with a unified licence for his service area will get the right to offer all types of access services within his service area; right to carry national long distance traffic of any subscriber within his licences service area and right to set up an international gateway in his licences service area for catering to ILD calls to and from his licenced service area.

"An all India telecom licencee, on the other hand, will be able to provide access service throughout the country. Further, he will be able to pick up the NLD traffic of any subscriber anywhere in the country and carry it to any national or international destination," COAI said.