In order to deepen competition and provide more choices for the telecom consumer, Myanmar has invited proposals from domestic public companies for bids to become its fourth telecoms operator.
However, the latest invitation has an interesting caveat: while the potential winner of the licence must be a local company, the government will have to approve a foreign partner for the winner of the licence.
Telecoms sector liberalisation is widely seen as one of Myanmar’s most successful reforms since the military ceded power in 2011. Usage has since leapt to just over half the population of 51 million.
The venture would add another player to a telecoms sector that has exploded since Norway’s Telenor and Qatar’s Ooredoo started offering cellphone services last year.
A third license is held by MPT, a joint venture between the telecoms ministry and Japanese-owned KDDI Group.
The latest request for a licence to be issued is said to be part of a “special purpose vehicle”, for which a Myanmar firm would first be selected by telecoms authorities with a foreign partner sought later, according to the country’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT).
“The number of mobile phone and internet users has been growing very fast here. We have to improve the services,” the MCIT told Reuters.
The announcement also published in state-run Myanma Alin Daily requires firms with registered capital of at least 3 billion kyat (about $2.3 million) to submit proposals by August 24.
Only three years ago, cellphone penetration in Myanmar, at 2.3 per cent, was Asia’s lowest after North Korea, when MPT was a state monopoly offering limited, at times, haphazard, 2G services.
Telenor last week reported second quarter earnings below expectations but analysts said strong performance of the firm’s Myanmar unit had helped offset weaknesses of subsidiaries elsewhere.