30 million SIM cards in use
Since August 2014, SIM cards from Telenor and Ooredoo can be used in Myanmar and their combined users now outstrip state-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT)'s customer base.
Observers believe that people’s interest in MPT’s Swe Thahar programme has lowered and price charges have pushed customers elsewhere.
From April 2013 to September 2014, 7.4 million Ks1,500 SIM cards were sold. Among them, GSM SIM cards were 19.73 million WCDMA SIM cards were 2.52 million and CDMA 800MHz were about 3 million. From September 2014 to present, there were about 8.4 million SIM cards sold. It is estimated that from April 2013 to April 2015, around 16 million SIM cards were sold. Before the low cost Ks1,500 SIM cards launched, there were about 4.2 million SIM cards in use.
Telenor claimed to have about 3.4 million SIM cards in use in December 2014 and now it puts the figure at 6.4 million.
Ooredoo said it had added 3.3 million users in the first three months of 2015. Eighty per cent of its customers use smartphone.
About 30 million SIM cards from the three operators are in use with more than 50 per cent of people using mobile phones and further increases expected.
Coverage needs to be expanded into rural areas and existing areas of cover needed to become more reliable to boost further expansion in mobile phone use.
The country of 51 million people only had around one million mobile phone users three years ago but the number has shot up after the telecom liberalisation.
