"We have just appointed a consultant to advise the authority on licensing issues and procedures," said Mohammed Al Ghanem director-general of Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, while talking to Khaleej Times yesterday.

He said that the consultant will take a month's time to complete the task given, and enable the authority to issue the licence to the operator by the middle of this year.

The director-general said it was premature  to speculate as to when the operator would actually commence its service.

Asked about status of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) or Internet telephony, Al Ghanem said that since TRA is still working on an internal study on the scope of the issue until a final decision is taken.

Earlier, speaking at the ceremony in which the UAE delegation to the World Radio Telecommunication Conference was awarded for their key role, the director general said the UAE has been honoured to coordinate the tasks of the Arab delegation in the conference, reflecting the confidence of the Arab countries in the abilities of the UAE.

Counting the achievements of the UAE delegation, he said it included the ITU adoption of a member of the delegation to vice-chair the ITU fourth Radio-Communication Study Group that is responsible for the space services activities for the coming four years until the next WRC in 2011 as well as accrediting the TRA representative to the ITU as the reporter of the third Chapter of the preliminary meeting for the coming four years also.