April 19, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 12, 1429

LAHORE, April 18: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Shahzada Alam Malik has said that the process of awarding 3rd Generation mobile phone licences will be completed by the end of this year.

He was speaking at a ceremony held to finalise acquisition of majority of Worldcall shares by Omantel SAOG at a hotel here on Friday. He said the auction for the licence of the service had been planned through open biding process.

After launching of 3G services, the mobile users will be able to use internet with high speed, make video calls and other value added data services.

Worldcall’s CEO Salman Taseer said that Omantel was acquiring 488.8 million (65 per cent of available) shares of Worldcall. Of this 451.2 million shares were from the sponsors while 37.5 million were being purchased from the public through the securities markets. “The total value of this landmark transaction is around $200 million.”

He said that Worldcall was positioned in a unique way being the only true Multi Service Operator (MSO) in Pakistan telecom landscape with proven track record and established market position in various segments of its operations.

Through this acquisition, he said, Omantel had obtained direct access to a market of 170 million with immense potential for growth in core telecom and broadband service offerings.