The latest news on the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) nano-SIM voting saga, is that the vote has been postponed for at least 30 days after the member companies couldn’t reach an agreement.

ETSI, an independent standards body that delivers globally applicable standards for information and communications technologies, has to decide between two proposals for the next generation nano-SIM standard.

The first proposal came from Apple, whose nano-Sim could require a “drawer” to protect it, in a similar manner to the trays already employed within current iPhone and iPad models. An alternative proposal has been put forth by Nokia that is supported by Motorola Mobility, as well as Research In Motion (RIM).

The vote was scheduled for last week, but was suspended after the participating companies failed to reach agreement on whose proposal to adopt. Earlier Apple made a commitment to grant royalty-free licenses to any of its patents essential to nano-SIM technology. This was based on the conditions that the other ETSI members voted to adopt its standard and that all other patent holders also followed this course of action with regard to their patents.

Nokia, however, refused to license its key patents to Apple in exchange for free use of Apple’s proposed nano-SIM technology, calling Apple’s royalty-free licensing commitment “an attempt to devalue the intellectual property of others.” BlackBerry maker RIM also accused Apple of trying to manipulate the voting process in order to get its proposal adopted. This resulted in the vote being postponed.