Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will award 3G and 4G mobile spectrum licenses to successful mobile operating bidders on May 22 at Islamabad, Dailytimes.com.pk reports.

In the transparent auction held by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in April, the government raised $902.82 million in the first auction for 3G mobile phone networks and $210 million for the 4G spectrum.

Winning mobile operators for 3G licenses include Mobilink, Telenor and Ufone, while Zong was declared successful for both 3G and 4G licenses. Pakistan has more than 132 million mobile phone subscribers and has now provided the latest mobile communication technology to its users.

Prime Minister Nawaz previously directed the Ministry of Information Technology to speed up the introduction process of both 3G and 4G technologies in Pakistan simultaneously to catch up with the rest of the world.

The award of these licenses will provide 260 billion rupees ($2.6 billion) in additional revenue to the exchequer and at the same time open up thousands of employment opportunities in the country.