ISLAMABAD (Online) - The much-awaited auction of 3 G license has been approved by the cabinet Committee through which government is expected to generate $ 1.2 billion per annum,a senior official told Online. The official told that the cabinet committee under the chair of Finance Minister Dr.Abdul Hafeez Shaikh approved the auction of 3 G spectrum on November 2, while he said that formal approval and announcement is expected from the Federal Cabinet during current month. "The Committee had directed the Ministry of Information Technology (IT) to initiate auction of 3 G license through Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) from the current month. Although the license process is to be started shortly, the licenses themselves might not be available until 2013", said the official. The government will offer fewer licenses in blocks of 20-35 MHz and estimated revenue of between US$750 million - US$1.2 billion per annum. Pakistan had originally planned launch of 3G licenses in 2007 but was delayed on the insistence of incumbent operators who wanted to recover their investment cost for 2G networks before investing in new infrastructure. Pakistan has low penetration of broadband, with only 1.4 million subscribers as compared to 109 million cellular subscribers out of 180 million populations. 3G or 3rd generation mobile telecommunications is a generation of standards for mobile phones and telecommunication services fulfilling the International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000) specifications by the international telecommunication Union. Application services include wide-area wireless voice telephone, mobile internet access calls and mobile TV, all in a mobile environment. To meet the IMT-2000 standards, a system is required to provide peak data rates of at least 200kbit/s. It is pertinent to mention here that, Pakistan's biggest telecommunication company PTCL launched its 3G network, EVO, in mid-2008 and has since then established itself in this sector. It provides 3G services in 105 cities across Pakistan. Omantel's World Call also provide 3G services in 50 cities Pakistan wide. On 14 August 2010. Pakistan became the first country in the world to experience EVDO's RevB 3G technology that offers maximum speeds of 9.3 Mbit/s. At present the services of EVO Nitro (brand name (R)) are available in all over the Pakistan.