It's Wataniya's Final Deadline Day...

But it looks like the waiting will continue until tomorrow.

I spoke with Allan Richardson, CEO of Wataniya, at 9 a.m. Palestine time for about 45 seconds today, Oct. 15. He sounded busy and somewhat chipper, but declined to comment on whether he thought Wataniya would receive 4.8 MHz by the end of today.

“We have a number of meetings going on today and we’re not in a position to say anything right now,” he said. “But if you call me back tomorrow, I should be able to tell you exactly what’s going to happen.”

While both sides have been ramping up dialogues behind the scenes, there have not yet been any public indications of progress. Last week, a Reuters article reported that the Palestinian Authority has sought assistance from the International Telecommunication Union, which is responsible for defining and adopting worldwide telecom standards.

The public response from the ITU doesn’t inspire much hope for a breakthrough. The ITU said only that it had received the Palestinian request and “asked both parties to cooperate.”