The entire industry was pinning its hopes on the opinion of Attorney General Soli Sorabjee for revenue sharing. Though there is no legal bar, the AG is unlikely to give his opinion with the BJP-led government reduced to a caretaker status.

Existing operators say they face an uncertain future. To begin with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will again initiate moves to recover first quarter licence fees for the present fiscal from cellular and basic operators and terminating licences in cases of defaulters.

Indications to this effect emerged on Monday, when a top DoT official told The Financial Express that, "We will continue on our earlier course of action by recovering fees and ensuring full compliance of licence fee obligations". DoT, which has been lying low over the past few days is now expected to go ahead with plans it feels will be endorsed at top levels in the ministry.

The delay in the AG's opinion has operators worried, as they feel that the delay will prolong their agony and lead companies deeper into the red.The situation has been compounded by the fact that financial institutions are afraid to fund telecom ventures-classified as high risk in the present scenario. For instance private basic operators alone have already invested close to Rs 4,000 crore till date, while cellular companies have invested more than Rs 10,000 crore in setting up services and licence fee. Telecom industry chieftains have been critical of the BJP government and had hoped that the changed political circumstances would usher in a new and more favourable regime. "We had hoped that the Congress would come to our rescue," said an operator. But, with the BJP reduced to a caretaker ministry, not only will the present dispensation continue, any hopes of the AG coming to our rescue have faded.

Chairman telecom commission Anil Kumar had recently maintained that the reference forwarded by the DoT to AG was relevant even in the changed political situation.

Stating that the reference was not infructous, Kumar had said that the AG would give his opinion on the basis of the merit of the case. This had raised hopes that something would happen soon.

However, Monday's developments will not affect the new telecom policy formulated by the BJP-led alliance, as it was not subject to compulsory review. Citing the case of the 1994 telecom policy, which was changed in order to incorporate technological changes and other developments, he said that the present policy could only be reviewed in that context.