The service should not be treated as a "premium service" as it is aimed at serving a lot of consumers, said senior vice-president ICO Global, Bishnu D Pradhan. Over 300,000 villages could benefit from these, he said, adding that the government should help in making the services affordable.

Countering his argument, TRAI member RRN Prasad said, "the general impression is that GMPCS is a niche service." There is also a need for optimal technology which is affordable by the mass market, he said, adding that GMPCS with higher tariff remains a niche service.

Iridium India vice-president TM Sridharan said operators pay a large percentage of the tariffs to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Videsh SancharNigam Ltd (VSNL). The services can become cheap only if the charges payable to these authorities come down, he added.

The discussion also focused on the definition of gross revenue. Service providers argued that the sale of proprietary items such as GMPCS handset be out of the purview of gross revenue. "Proceeds of revenue handsets must not be included in calculating gross revenue as this is not a main business of the service provider and is used mainly for promotional schemes," they said.