Tuesday 26 November 2013

Telecoms still waiting on licences

Prolonged discussions over an operator’s licence between the government and Norwegian-based telecoms operator Telenor and Qatar’s Ooredoo will result in the highly anticipated networks not becoming operational until at least mid-2014, officials said.

Ooredoo and Telenor are working on roughly the same timeline, saying it would take six and eight months respectively to develop an infrastructure and launch services once it obtains an operator’s licence from the government.

But that is something it appears will not happen until the end of the year, officials from both operators told The Myanmar Times.

“Telenor Myanmar is in discussions with the government, and we expect to secure our operating licence by the end of 2013,” Matchima Chanswangpuwana, head of communications at Telenor Myanmar, said by email.

“We will begin our telecom infrastructure roll-out right after we are awarded the licence,” she said.

Telenor had it planned to start up operations in Myanmar in mid-2014, although the delay in the licensing process now means services will not launch until at least August 2014.

Experts said the process of passing the Telecommunications Law and the issuance of the operator’s licence has taken longer than expected, though Telenor refused to comment on
specifics.

“What we can say is that the government had run an open and efficient bidding process and we look forward to bringing the many benefits of mobile communications services to the people of Myanmar,” she said.

source: The Myanmar Times

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