Algeria on Thursday authorized the three mobile phone operators to launch the 3G service. However, observers believe that the lack of a new telecom law in the North African country is likely to hinder the implementation of this new technology.

"By now, the operators can proceed to launch the 3G service in their respective provinces of deployment in accordance with specifications," Algerian watchdog Regulatory Authority for Post and Telecommunications (ARPT) announced on its website on Thursday.

The three concerned operators are the state-run Mobilis (a subsidiary of Algerie Telecom), Nedjma (a unit of Qatari Ooreedoo), and Djezzy (a unit of Russia's Vimpelcom), all of which got 3G+ temporary licences from the ARPT in mid October.

However, in October, the parliament announced that the telecom draft law was withdrawn and will not be examined, without providing more details.

"The new telecom draft law was withdrawn from the parliament without adoption, and this step is likely to hinder the progress of the implementation of the 3G service in Algeria, because such a complicated technology requires a juridical frame in order to launch some option," Farid Farah, a local expert told Xinhua.

"The current law regulates the 2G service; while the 3G which has just been launched is not regulated," Farah noted.

"The lack of a new law would delay the progress of the extension of the 3G service in different parts of the country," he specified, pointing out that "the three mobile operators would be forced to resort to local authorities to get authorization to install their BTS, and this procedure is full of bureaucracy and would delay the progress of the 3G networking progress."

Meanwhile, the price of the 3G service will not be affordable for all mobile subscribers, according to Farah.

Farah said that the 3G service price could have been much lower if Algeria hosted a data center.

"For now, Algeria is forced to import data from abroad, and the lower the transport cost of data is, the lower the 3G service price is," he said, adding "Algeria has to start encouraging the local made applications and installing local data centers to host the applications in order to provide the 3G service for all."

The bid to exploit the 3G mobile phone was made for the first time in September 2011, but the move was postponed due to the dispute over the purchase by the Algerian Orascom Telecom Algeria, known under the brand name Djezzy.

The 3G is faster than the previous generation GSM in terms of the rate of data transfer ranging from 2 to 42 Mb/s, as it applies in particular to the Internet, watching videos and Internet TV, in addition to videophone. As for the 3G+, it offers a performance ten times higher than the 3G.

There are some 37.5 million mobile phone subscribers in Algeria which has about 37.9 million inhabitants, according to the report of the three mobile operators.