The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has been instructed to ensure the long-delayed 3G licence auction takes place within the next three months, local media sources report.

PTA officials said that they have made all preparations for the 3G licence auction and would be inviting bids soon.

One option will see the offer of up to 10MHz of radio spectrum per licence, with the government expecting to earn between US$240-US$800 million. A second option would be to offer fewer licences in blocks of 20-35MHz, generating estimated revenue of between US$750 million-US$1.2 billion.

Although the licence process is expected to be decided on shortly, the concessions themselves might not be available until 2013. This is due to an agreement entered into by the government not to offer any additional radio spectrum, as part of its deal to sell a 26 per cent stake in state-owned Pakistan Telecommunications Company to Etisalat in 2006.

The Pakistan government has decided to ban mobile number portability in the country, citing alleged threats to national security, although quite how it could be was not made clear.

A meeting between the government and the regulator was reported to have agreed that criminals are using unregistered SIM cards – despite a ban on selling SIM cards without verifying the identity of the purchaser.

As a result of the meeting, the regulator is to clamp down on the sale of unregistered SIMs – and also agreed to block future MNP requests.

MNP was originally introduced into the country in April 2007. Telcordia provides the clearing house software for the service.

The recently delayed decision to implement a censorship system on text messages was again confirmed as going ahead once the networks are ready.

Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Atheeb Telecom (Go) has been granted permission by the kingdom’s stock exchange regulator to raise US$310 million in a new share issue. The rights issue will be limited to existing shareholders.

Once completed, the company’s shares should resume trading on the stock exchange, which were suspended when its losses exceeded 95 per cent of its valuation.

The company holds a landline operator licence under the Go Telecom brand as well as a WiMAX licence, and is 15 per cent owned by Bahrain’s Batelco.

It had been expected that the company would be merged with Zain if the Batelco-led takeover of Zain Saudi Arabia had succeeded. The collapse of those talks left Atheeb on its own.

The company has not said when the share issue will take place.

AT&T has finally accepted that the obstacles to its takeover of T-Mobile USA are proving insurmountable, and has formally dropped the takeover bid.

Due to the collapse of the takeover bid, AT&T will recognise a pre-tax accounting charge of US$4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. Additionally, AT&T will enter a mutually beneficial roaming agreement with Deutsche Telekom.

"To meet the needs of our customers, we will continue to invest," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. "However, adding capacity to meet these needs will require policymakers to do two things. First, in the near term, they should allow the free markets to work so that additional spectrum is available to meet the immediate needs of the US wireless industry, including expeditiously approving our acquisition of unused Qualcomm spectrum currently pending before the FCC. Second, policymakers should enact legislation to meet our nation’s longer-term spectrum needs."

The takeover bid was originally announced in March 2011, and was for a US$39 billion takeover of T-Mobile by AT&T. Under the terms of the deal, Deutsche Telekom was due to receive US$25 billion in cash and US$14 billion in AT&T shares.

Deutsche Telekom had planned to use approximately US$18.4 billion of the proceeds to reduce its debts. Although Deutsche Telekom is no longer receiving the cash from the sale, and will have to reconsolidate T-Mobile USA into its accounts, it is receiving cash and services worth around US$6 billion in compensation.

Samsung Electronics today announced that it has this year achieved annual mobile handset sales of 300 million units for the first time in Samsung’s history.

Samsung’s 2011 sales results cap a successful year for Samsung across its entire handset portfolio. The company’s flagship GALAXY S range of products – GALAXY S and GALAXY S II – contributed significantly to the success, as the products have continued to gain popularity among consumers and driven the GALAXY brand to one of the most recognised mobile brands in the world. The GALAXY S II, launched in 2011, set a new sales record for Samsung, generating 10 million sales quicker than any mobile device in the company’s history.

Meanwhile, Samsung’s portfolio of bada smartphones continues to gain sales momentum around the world, further boosted in 2011 with the launch of the newly upgraded bada 2.0. This year, Samsung announced new additions to the bada-powered Wave smartphone portfolio, including the flagship Wave 3, which is will be soon available in the GCC market.