The department of telecom is considering a proposal to allow long-distance operators to use common infrastructure for both domestic as well as international call centres in order to minimise costs.

The move is aimed at promoting India as a favoured destination for business process outsourcing apart from taking benefits of a converged regime.

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Senior government sources said that companies like Bharti had written to the communications ministry seeking convergence of operations.

The proposal has however been shot down by the department's technical wing Telecom Engineering Committee on grounds that such a move would allow companies to by-pass the long distance operator's network causing huge revenue losses not only to BSNL but also to the government.

TEC has said that no technical monitoring was possible, which can distinguish whether a call was meant for a call centre or being misused for by-passing the ILD network.

Official sources, however pointed out that there was also a view that since most private sector telecom companies are integrated players with licences for local as well as long distance services, it would be in the interest of the operators to safeguard against any misuse of the proposal to allow merger of call centre operations.

Bharti for instance has given a commitment that it would ensure that no by-pass takes place.

Industry sources said that stiff competition from countries like Philippines and other South-East Asian countries makes it important for Indian call centres to be more attractive and cheaper.

At present interconnection between international and domestic call centre is not permitted.