Myanmar's government has finally announced Qatar Telecom (Ooredoo) and Norwegian Telenor as the winners of two mobile operating licences, defeating many expectations in the hotly contested race for one of Asia's untapped telecom markets.
Myanmar's Telecommunications Operator
and Tender Evaluation and Selection Committee released a press statement
on Thursday evening confirming the two winners.
"(The Union Government) is pleased to
announce that Telenor Mobile Communications and Ooredoo have been
accepted as the two successful applicants in the nation-wide
Telecommunications Licence Award Process," said a press statement posted
on the website Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
Neither company opted to join with a
local partner, defeating many experts' expectations that partnerships
with national businesses would provide a key advantage in the race. Many
had their eyes on SingTel, Digicel and Japan's KDDI consortiums because
of their strong marketing campaigns, choice of local business partners
and favourable government relations with Myanmar.
Now the chips have fallen, it is clear that the right investment strategy any strong marketing may have won the day.
Ooredoo is Qatar’s national telecom
company (formerly QTel) and has operations in 17 markets across the
Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. Ooredoo did not invest in big
marketing campaigns like rivals Digicel and Telenor. However, it did
announce that it would spend US$ 15 billion in mobile infrastructure if
it is chosen for a license. This was by far the largest sum proposed by
any company.
Telenor on the other hand is Norway's
State-owned company with operations in 11 markets. While during the
tender they kept quiet on revealing how much money they would invest,
they have run one of the strongest marketing campaigns building up their
brand in Myanmar from a virtual unknown.
Exemplifying their different approaches,
Telenor were immediately present on social media and on their website
announcing their win.
“We are delighted that Telenor is a
winning bidder in what was a highly competitive telecommunications
licence tender in Myanmar. We thank the government for giving Telenor
the opportunity to support the country in achieving its goals, and for
the open and efficient bidding process," said Jon Fredrik Baksaas,
President and CEO of Telenor Group on their website.
At the time of reporting, Ooredoo had still not commented on their win.
This has been one of the most
competitive international telecom bids in what experts regard as one of
the last mobile frontiers. Myanmar promises huge growth in its fledgling
telecommunication sector as currently only 10 percent of the population
have access to cellphones.
However, both Ooredoo and Telenor will
have to invest considerable sums in infrastructure to begin providing
nation-wide networks. They will also be competing with two
government-owned companies who currently dominate the mobile market.
Only yesterday, Myanmar's Parliament
attempted to postpone the announcement until after a telecommunications
bill was passed which will define a legal and regulatory framework for
the sector.
These are only some of the challenges ahead in the new race to expand Myanmar's mobile market.
source: Eleven Myanmar
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