Developing Telecoms in emerging markets worldwide
- Departments
- Operator News
- Vendor News
- Regulation
- M&A / Investment
- Trends & Forecasts
- Blogs & Opinion
- Humanitarian Comms
- Infrastructure
- Wireless Networks
- Optical / Motionless Networks
- Satellite Networks
- Data Centres & Networks
- Green Energy
- Devices & Platforms
- Digital Content/Services
- Messaging
- Apps, Content & OTT
- Mobile Financial Services
- IoT, M2M & UC
- Cloud & Virtualisation
Newsletter Sign Up
Related Articles
Apple under review over antitrust allegations in China
Indian operators have little appetite for further spectrum auctions this year
Nigerian operators shove for price hike to offset OTT losses
Myanmar’s fresh operator Mytel has announced it will invest over US$Four billion to build a fresh network prioritising rural areas.
As announced on Developing Telecoms in March 2016, a consortium lead by Vietnam’s Viettel had secured negotiating rights to receive Myanmar’s fourth mobile licence. Viettel had failed in an earlier attempt to inject the Myanmar market, in 2014. Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Communication confirmed the latest license award on January 13. The consortium, Myanmar National Tele & Communications (MNTC), announced that it will operate under the Mytel brand.
MNTC, made up of eleven companies, has close links to the government through Starlet High Public Company, a subsidiary of the military run Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC). MEC also possesses MECTel, a little known CDMA network competitor to the other three operators in Myanmar. Recently MECTel has been operating as an MVNO over the Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT) network.
The Starlet High – MEC connection gives MyTel access to 1,000 towers and over 13,000 kilometres of fibre, plus other MECTel telecoms assets, thus converting the viability of the business case for the fresh market entrant. According to an MPT spokesperson “As a general principle, the idea is to leverage MECTel’s assets, at least those ones that can be commercially used, as well as the existing subscriber base”.
The fresh operator will concentrate on rural coverage, aiming to reach nationwide coverage within the very first year of operation and extend access to ninety five per cent of the population within three years. The network will operate in the 900MHz and Two.1GHz bands. Mytel says it hopes to dual current available mobile internet speeds with a target of 3mbps per user. Mytel has also announced it will connect to the AAE-1 (Asia-Africa-Europe) submarine cable with state-owned MPT controlling the land based access point into Myanmar.
Commenting on the plans, Zaw Min Oo, chief outer relations officer of Mytel said “About seventy per cent of the population is rural. We are targeting them. We witnessed that people used the internet more than we expected. We are viewing it as an chance. Albeit we expect it will take about one year to prepare the services, it may be quicker as a result of sharing basic infrastructure. We will provide 2G, 3G and 4G depending on the requirements of the users."
The fresh licence will be valid for fifteen years and can be renewed for an extra ten years. The terms are identical to those given to Telenor and Ooredoo, Myanmar’s other two overseas operators.
Myanmar presently has around fifty two million mobile subscribers, with market invasion approaching seventy per cent.