Challenges ahead as Telenor weighs Myanmar

Challenges ahead as Telenor weighs Myanmar

Published on Saturday, 29 June 2013 14:40

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

The Nation

Sigve Brekke, managing director of Norway-based Telenor Asia.

All service in 2 years wanted despite lack of infrastructure

Sigve Brekke, managing director of Norway-based Telenor Asia, which oversees Thailand's second biggest mobile phone operator, Dtac, will soon have a big task in Myanmar as Telenor has been chosen as one of the two concession winners.

The Norwegian firm was one of the 11 finalists in the international bidding for two concessions to be granted by the Myanmar government to build a green-field nationwide mobile telecom network.

Brekke says: "Back in 2002, I was a co-CEO of Dtac in Thailand together with Khun Vichai Bencharongkul (a founder of Dtac). For two years, we worked together. After that Khun Vichai went back to his family business." "Dtac started as a small company whose image was rather boring - like an old sick lady. We tried to change our image by launching the Happy Dprompt and Khon Dee campaigns which were quite successful. 

We also changed our corporate and office culture to send the message that we wanted to be an innovative, fun or "sanook"and "sa-buy sa-buy" company."

"In business, we don't have to be formal. The dress code is informal so we managed to come up with new ideas, services etc. In the end, we narrowed the gap with AIS, which was the market leader. Now, Dtac is No 2 with a market share of 37 per cent. In terms of the number of subscribers, Dtac has more than 26 million out of the 100 million or so number of subscribers in Thailand."

"In terms of revenue, ours is about Bt110 billion annually or 35-36 per cent of the industry's total revenue. In fact, Dtac is the biggest unit in the whole Telenor group - bigger than Telenor's revenue in Norway. After Thailand, Malaysia is the second biggest market for Telenor and Norway is No 3."

"In Asia, we cover Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan. Myanmar is our next target. We're bidding for one of the two licences in Myanmar which is one of the last places in Asia where most people don't have a mobile phone.

"Of the 60 million population in Myanmar, only 5-6 per cent have phones and one Sim card costs Bt5,000. It's a big opportunity. 

The competition is very tough. In the beginning, there were 92 firms wanting to bid for the two licenses."

"Then, they narrowed down the number to 11 and Telenor is one of them. 

Other 11 finalists included Singapore Telecom, a Malaysian telecom giant firm, France Telecom, Airtel of India, KDD of Japan, a George Soros-affiliated firm etc."

"I couldn't say about the investment outlay yet, but the Myanmar government wanted to do within two years what our countries did in 15 years. In other words, they want to do data, 2G, 3G, and 4G services in one go."

"They wanted to have data services from Day One - not starting with voice and other services first. They wanted the best technology in the world and implemented the project quickly."

"The successful bidders will have to cover Myanmar with voice services as quickly as possible but this is a country where there is no telecom tower or other infrastructure yet, while only 26 per cent of the population now has electricity so you need solar panels to provide electricity to the telecom towers."

"Second, they need to start data services and cover the whole country very quickly also, and then application services. 

That could be 2G or 3G and there is no fixed line or broadband services. It will be the first time that Myanmar people can access the Internet and via their mobile devices."

"That's a big challenge. Then, they will need services such as Facebook, Google Tweeter, but we also look at Internet-based banking, farmers, education and other services."

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/06/29/challenges-ahead-as-telenor-weighs-myanmar/