Burma awards lucrative mobile phone contracts

Burma has awarded lucrative telecom licences to Norwegian firm Telenor and Qatari firm Ooredoo, a government committee in charge of bids has said.

Correspondents say that the contract opens up one of the world's last mostly untapped mobile phone markets.

According to a British Broadcasting Corporation report, It is estimated that only nine per cent of 60 million people have mobile phones.

Eleven foreign companies were short-listed in their bid to supply telecommunications infrastructure in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

These included South East Asia's biggest phone company Singtel, Japan's KDDI and Telenor.

The government has said it will finalise the 15-year licences by September and operators will need to launch services within nine months.

They will have to provide voice services across 75 per cent of the country within five years and data services across half of it.

France's Telecom-Orange and Marubeni Corporation of Japan will be back-up options if either of the two successful firms fails to meet selection criteria, the selection committee said.

Burma lags behind its neighbours in mobile coverage and wants to provide affordable coverage to help spur economic development.

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Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/06/29/burma-awards-lucrative-mobile-phone-contracts/