Three more telecom service providers get licences
Japan's KDDI unit in Myanmar was among three companies winning licences this month to provide telecom-related services.
According to Than Tun Aung, director-general of the telecommunications directorate, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has granted new licences to three telecom companies – KDDI, Elite Tech and Yatanarpon Teleport.
A total of 50 local and foreign companies had applied for the communication-related services such as fibre-optic installation, construction of telecom towers, satellite services and others.
Of the total, eight licences have been granted to local and foreign companies since January this year, including Shwe Than Lwin, Digicel Myanmar, KDDI Summit Global Myanmar, E-lite Telecom and Yatanarpon Teleport.
The three mobile phone operators – the state-owned and only service provider until 2014 Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), Ooredoo Myanmar and Telenor Myanmar – are committed to invest billions of US dollars within five years, to raise the mobile phone penetration rate in the country. For a start, the foreign players’ entry has helped slash the prices of SIM cards from US$1,500. Cheap smartphones have helped spur the demand for Internet service. However, more companies are needed to offer related services to satisfy the huge demand.
According to an Australian online telecom research house Budde.com, mobile service penetration rate was estimated at 17 per cent in 2014, up sharply from 7 per cent in 2012.
The country is striving to boost growth in the telecom industry, hoping this would improve its reconnection with the global community, lift the quality of life of local people and spur fast economic growth.
McKinsey, a consulting firm, said in a research launched in 2013 said that if Myanmar invested US$650 billion (US$320 billion on infrastructure) until 2030, the country has a chance to create 10 million more non-agricultural jobs.
In a study of 120 low- and middle-income countries, the World Bank found that a 10-per-cent increase in broadband penetration between 1980 and 2002 yielded an additional 1.38 per cent in GDP growth
