Jordan delays tender of 3G frequencies licence

AMMAN, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's telecom authorities delayed the public tender to grant the first Third Generation (3G) frequencies license, which was previously slated for Sunday, local daily The Jordan Times reported on Monday.

Zain, Orange Mobile and Xpress submitted letters before the Eidal-Adha holiday asking the delay of floating the public tender document, Ahmad Hiyasat, chief commissioner and CEO of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), said on Sunday.

"In their request, they said they need more time for preparing their business cases and stressed that they need more time, especially that December is full of holidays," said Hiyasat.

The TRC will study their request and the reasons they cited for the postponement and come up with a decision during next week, according to the TRC chief.

Late November, the TRC announced that a public tender to grant the first 3G license will be floated after the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

According to Hiyasat, the reserve price of the spectrum is set at 25 million Jordanian dinars (about 35.3 million U.S. dollars), for a paired block of the 5 MHz spectrum.

The department has previously scheduled the deadline for submitting bids on Jan. 27, 2009.

3G is the third generation of standards and technology, superseding 2.5G. 3G networks enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services, while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.