­Kuwait's mobile networks have been granted licenses to deploy LTE based 4G services, the Minister of Communications has announced.

Under the decision, the three telecommunication companies -- Zain, Viva and Wataniya Telecom -- were granted authorisation to refarm their 1800Mhz spectrum for LTE services subject to the payment of a KD 250,000 fee.

The Ministry added that it has adopted a decree to realign the networks 900MHz holdings by increasing the frequencies allocated for each of Wataniya Telecom and Viva to 10 MHz, and reducing Zain's holdings to 14 MHz.

Zain was allocated a larger block of spectrum as a historic consequence of being the former monopoly operator in the country.