Vodafone, Orange and SingTel are among operators approached to form a partnership that would bolster Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), the country’s incumbent, according to Financial Times.
The country’s government wants a partner to support state-backed MPT which is set to face intensive competition from newcomers in the country Ooredoo and Telenor, both licensed in June this year.
The fact that Orange has been approached is not surprising. It was named in an earlier media report as a potential partner for MPT and the French operator confirmed that contact had taken place.
Orange could be a strong candidate – it was selected in June as a back-up in case either Ooredoo or Telenor did not sign their licence agreements.
An approach to Vodafone is more surprising since, having initially expressed interest in bidding for one of the two licences awarded in June, the company dropped out of the process.
Vodafone and China Mobile chose not to go ahead with their plans for a bid without being specific about the reasons.
So far it is unclear how developed the government’s thinking is in regard to MPT. How any partnership would work has not been stated.
For instance, it is not known if the government wants single or multiple partners. And nothing has been said about the incumbent’s current financial situation, or whether the government wants a financial investor, or just a technical partner. No timeline for finding a partner was given either.
MPT has seven million connections according to GSMA Intelligence (Q3, 2013 figures).
source: MobileWorldLive
http://www.mobileworldlive.com/myanmar-govt-lines-bidders-incumbents-report
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