India’s central bank has issued new guidelines that prohibit mobile operators from using their nationwide retail networks for mobile payments, the Economic Times reported.

While mobile payments offer an opportunity for operators to generate additional revenue from their subscribers, analysts say the new guidelines could make the business case for moving into mobile banking unviable. The move would sharply increase the cost of rolling out m-banking services since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said operators would not be able to use their existing channels.

Operators would be required to invest in new retail and distribution networks to support mobile banking, which would be a financial burden and limit the growth potential of the new services.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India have mobile wallets that offer remittance services, but they haven’t been as successful as in Africa due to regulatory issues.

The country’s operators have also asked the Reserve Bank of India and the Department of Telecom to clarify if mobile banking revenue would be considered part of their annual gross revenue, the Times said. This is an important consideration since it will impact their licence fees and spectrum usage fees.

A representative from the Cellular Operators Association of India told the Times that payment revenue shouldn’t be included as annual gross revenue if the government requires them to deliver it via a separate channel, with a permit from the Reserve Bank of India not the DoT.