The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended that fixed-line operators migrating to the unified licence regime should pay the difference between the licence fee paid by them and the fourth cellular operators.

If the government accepts this recommendation, fixed-line operators looking for an all-India presence will have to pay Rs 1,200 crore. This is because in the fourth round of bidding, GSM operators could get an all India licence for Rs 1,600-1,700 crore. Fixed-line operators paid Rs 495 crore for an all-India licence.

Trai made this suggestion to the Group of Ministers which was set up to resolve the telecom dispute between the CDMA limited mobile and GSM fully mobile operators.