Battle for Burma mobile licences

Burma's lower house of parliament has ruled that licenses for new mobile networks should be delayed until a law governing the sector is passed.

The ruling came just a day before the government was scheduled to announce the winners of the highly contested bid.

About 11 foreign companies had been short-listed in their bid to supply telecommunications infrastructure in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

These included South East Asia's biggest phone company Singtel, Japan's KDDI and Norway's Telenor.

Despite a population of 60 million, the country has among the world's lowest mobile phone use penetration.

Marae Ciantar, a partner at law firm Allens in Singapore, told the BBC that it was unclear "what the effect of the decision would be" and if it would delay the announcement of the winners of the bid.