The billions owed by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel for historic license fees must be paid after the Indian Supreme Court rejected their appeal.

The two massive operator groups appear to be running out of options, having spent the latter half of last year first contesting the fees, then begging for clemency and then finally threatening to exit the market if they’re given no relief over their massive financial burden. Typically the Supreme Court is where you turn to when you’ve tried everything else, but in this case it was that same court that enforced the fees last year.

Reuters reports that specifically it is petitions seeking a review of last year’s order that have been rejected, indicating that the Supreme Court has seen nothing since then to persuade it any mistake was made in its previous ruling. In today’s money Vodafone Idea owes $3.9 billion and Bharti Airtel $3 billion. This decision is sure to bring a fresh wave of existential angst from the beleaguered operators.

So what next? There will be talk of further petitions and that sort of thing but it looks like the Supreme Court is not for moving. That just seems to leave the political angle. The money is owed to the government, so it’s presumably within its power to at least ease the burden. In most countries MNO competition is considered vital to a healthy telecoms sector, but the way the Indian government has acted since the creation of Reliance Jio suggests otherwise in India.