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The government of Myanmar has announced plans to issue two telecom licences by June 2013, with further plans of another two licences at a currently undisclosed date. Foreign companies have until 25 January to bid on the licences, which will be renewable after an initial term of 10 to 20 years. This is the first big tender to international companies since the reformation process began in Myanmar in 2011.



A host of international operators have already showed interest in the licences, including Vimpelcom from Russia, Telenor from Norway, Singapore Telecommunications, Malaysia’s Axiata, the Japanese-Vietnamese joint-venture VNPT-Fujitsu, and Digicel, the largest mobile operator in the Caribbean.



The operators that win the licences will have to meet population and coverage targets, so as to also include the rural population of the country. Currently only about 5.5 million out of the country’s estimated 60 million people have mobile phones, and only 1% have land lines. The government seeks to boost the percentage of the population that owns a telephone to between 75 and 80% by 2015-2016, but thousands of kilometres of cable and more than 15,000 towers are needed to meet the target, according to a report by Deloitte.



Telecommunications are currently very expensive in the country, with SIM cards costing anywhere from USD 150 to USD 350 and call rates around USD 0.60 per minute. However, before the government recently decided to allow private vendors to sell SIM cards, these could cost as much as USD 2,500.



The government is also planning a draft telecommunications law that would liberalise the sector and replace legislation dating back to 1934.