Hope for big jump in phone ownership
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The government envisages increasing phone coverage to 50 per cent in 2015, according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
The ministry will choose two telecommunication operators next month and they will have to invest around US$2 billion, ministry officials said.
“We want phone density to reach 50 per cent in 2015. When we look at the international level, they took at least five or seven years to reach 50-per-cent phone [of the population].
“Vietnam only needed three years to extend density to 50 per cent. We don’t want to give false hope to people. We have only two-and-a-half years to reach 50 per cent in 2015.
“It will be that if we choose the best and most experienced mobile operators.
“We will emphasise increasing phone density and making an increase in mobile phone density our first priority,” Thaung Tin, deputy minister of communications and information technology, said on Monday.
Myanmar has about 7-per-cent mobile phone density and over 1-per-cent auto-phone density. Four telecom companies have said they plan to sell about 39 million mobile phones from 2013-16.
The ministry allocated the requirements for the operators and if they break the rules, they will be fined.
“We have the requirement that if we call 100 times, the network area has to be in range 99 times. If the call is out of area many times, the operator will have to pay a fine,” a ministry official said.
