China Mobile Communication has signed an agreement with Millicom International Cellular to buy the Luxembourg-based company's 88.86 percent shares of Paktel Limited, Pakistan's fifth largest mobile phone operator, officials said. The worth of the deal for purchase of 88.86 percent shares of Paktel Limited is $460 million (euro 355 million). The deal, which is yet to require an approval from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), is expected to be completed by late February. China Mobile has a cellular phone network in 16 countries. This is the first time that China Mobile has acquired a foreign telecommunication company of 'strategic significance'. Last year, the Chinese telecommunication giant acquired all shares of Hong Kong's fourth largest mobile operator, China Resources Peoples Telephone Company Limited, and a 19.9 percent stake in Phoenix TV. The Paktel Limited had 1.56 million mobile phone subscribers. It launched AMPS services in 1991 and was awarded a GSM-900 licence by the PTA in February 2003, which enabled it to begin its customers shifting from analogue to digital networks. In October 2003, it was awarded additional GSM-1800 spectrum free of charge, but when the PTA subsequently awarded two new cellular licences for $291 million in April 2004, it said it wanted to introduce licence fees for existing spectrum allocations.
