The guidelines for basic as well as cellular operations, aimed at promoting competition for benefiting consumers, would also seek to ensure a level-playing-field between public and private telecom players. "We had faced a lot of problems earlier when the players bid very high amount, but later failed to pay the licence fee which led to migration to revenue sharing regime from fixed licence fee structure," they added.

Asked about the fixation of licence fee or bid amount to avoid any arbitrary level, sources declined to comment saying the guidelines would be incorporating all these details.

As of now there are two cellular operators in each circle with the third operator being either Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) in Delhi and Mumbai or Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in the rest of the circles.With regard to basic telephone services guidelines for new entrants as well as existing players, sources said there would be unlimited competition and a reasonable one-time entry fee. Sources also said that the guidelines would provide for allowing basic operators to franchise operations in rural areas for increased penetration as well as for giving flexibility to licensees to make their operations viable. The licensee would, however, be responsible for meeting all terms and conditions of the licence.

Sources said that the guidelines would be kept flexible enough to incorporate component of controversial issue of allowing limited mobility as and when TRAI submits its final recommendations to the government. With regard to allocating spectrum for additional cellular operators, the government is believed to have decided to consider case by case depending on the availability.