Pakistan has indefinitely delayed selling of third-generation (3G) mobile telecoms licences auction, two operators told Reuters, which is expected to raise a minimum of $630 million for the cash-strapped country.
The auction of three 3G licences had been
scheduled to be held on March 29, according to a PTA's memorandum, and would be
open to the five existing mobile operators plus some new potential entrants.
Potential bidders were due to submit expressions of interest from January 21, but they have yet not been invited to do so, Walid Irshaid, chief executive of Pakistan Telecommunication Co (PTCL), told Reuters.
"All the dates announced earlier have been put on hold, what the new date is we don't know," said Irshaid. "The first step was not even taken yet. No official notification has been received by us or any other operator."
Former monopoly PTCL, an affiliate of United Arab Emirates' Etisalat, is the third-ranked mobile operator, with a 19 percent market share, behind Norway's Telenor and Mobilink, a unit of Egypt's Orascom Telecom, which respectively claim 25 and 30 percent of Pakistan's 116 million mobile subscribers.
A spokesman for Telenor said the government had postponed the auction until indefinitely until it hires an international consultant to supervise the process.
While nobody was immediately available for comment from PTA.
PTA expects to raise at least $630 million from the 3G auction, having set a base price of $210 million for each licence. Moreover, government which is still owed $800 million by Etisalat as part of the UAE firm's $2.6 billion acquisition of a 26 percent stake in PTCL in 2006.
Pakistan's two other mobile operators are Warid Telecom - a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Group and SingTel Group - and China Mobile Communication Cooperation's Zong.
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