Long Distance International licenses offered

PTA has offered LDI licenses to 19 players, domestic and foreign. From the press release issued yesterday:

"The companies qualified for the grant of LDI licenses included M/s.AG Telecom, M/s.ARY Communication (Pvt) Ltd, M/s.Bestel Communication (Pvt) Ltd, M/s.Burraq Telecom, M/s.Callmate Telips Telecom Ltd, M/s.Circle Net Comm, M/s.Dancom, M/s.DV Com, M/s.Link Direct Int’l, M/s.Micro Tech Links (Pvt) Ltd, M/s.Redtone Telecommunication (Pvt) Ltd, M/s.Spell Telecom, M/s.Telecard, M/s.Telecom Development (Pvt) Ltd, M/s.Telenor, M/s.Utel Pak Ltd, M/s.Warid Telecom, M/s.Wise Communication (Pvt) Ltd and M/s.Worldcall Telecom."

"Chairman PTA Major General (Retd) Shahzada Alam Malik said that the Authority had made all preparations to grant LDI licenses to the concerned parties in July provided they fulfilled the condition of submitting Performance Bond of US$10 million each as laid down in the Information Memorandum. The Chairman said that the Authority had given 30 days to the successful companies to remit the requisite Performance Bond fee to expedite the process of issuing LDI licenses. The term of the licenses would be for 20 years. He said that the companies applying for LL licenses involving Wireless Local Loop (WLL) service, auction for the allocation of spectrum would be held between July 13-19, 2004."