Norwegian firm Telenor and Qatar Telecommunications today won telecom licences in Myanmar, one of the last untapped mobile phone markets globally, pipping India’s Bharti Airtel and nine others. The government committee in charge of licence bids “is pleased to announce that Telenor Mobile Communications and Ooredoo (Qatar Telecom) have been selected as the two successful applicants”, a Myanmarese government statement said.

The expression of interest floated by Myanmar for two telecom licences received application from 91 entities and 12 including Vodafone, SingTel, Telecom-Orange and Marubeni Corporation were shortlisted. This was the first time Myanmar opened up the sector for private investments with aim to increase the overall teledensity of the country to 75 to 80% in 2015-2016.

Telenor and Qatar Telecom will be the first set of private operators to provide telecom services in Myanmar.

Telenor in an exchange filing said it will now start final discussion with Myanmar authorities.

“If a final licence is granted, Telenor will build a state-of-the-art mobile network using HSPA and LTE-ready (4G) technologies, and aims to achieve nationwide network coverage within five years. Mobile voice and data services will be commercially launched by in 2014,” it said. more…