Telecom Lead Asia: Digicel Group has submitted an expression of interest for bagging mobile license in Myanmar.
With an investment of $4.5 billion, the group has over 13 million customers across its 31 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and the Pacific.
Recently, Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel also joined the race to bag the license.
Telenor of Norway, the parent of the Thai mobile operator DTAC, Axiata of Malaysia, Singapore Telecommunications and ST Telemedia, a unit of Temasek Holdings, are looking for entering the mobile market in Myanmar.
Digicel is interested in rolling out mobile telecommunications network since current mobile penetration is well below 10 percent in Myanmar.
Digicel has been successful in driving mobile penetration in a number of underserved countries across the globe, most notably in Haiti where mobile penetration was just 5 percent prior to Digicel’s 2006 launch and now stands at approximately 50 percent.
In addition, Digicel signed two year sponsorship of the Myanmar Football Federation. It is supporting Special Olympics Myanmar for readying its athletes for World Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2015.
Colm Delves, CEO, Digicel Group, said: “Digicel is known across the globe for being much more than a telecommunications company. Wherever we do business, we ensure that the people of that country benefit from our presence and significant investments in infrastructure,”
“There is so much potential in Myanmar and, by offering first class and first world communications services that enable the people of Myanmar to achieve extraordinary things in their day to day lives – and supporting individuals and communities – we can help them as they affect positive change,” Delves added.
Several telecom equipment vendors are also planning to tap the Myanmar mobile market. In order to strengthen market position in Southeast Asia and compete with rivals such as Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE, Alcatel-Lucent is planning to look at business opportunities in Myanmar and other countries in Southeast Asia.
