Advertisment

Airtel loses Myanmar telecom bid to Telenor, Qatar Telecom

author-image
Muntazir
New Update

India's leading GSM service provider Bharti Airtel has lost to Norwegian firm Telenor and Qatar Telecommunications in Myanmar telcom license bid for two blocks.

Advertisment

The Myanmar government's expression of interest attracted application from over 90 companies while only 12 were shortlisted. These included Airtel, Vodafone, SingTel, Telecom-Orange and Marubeni Corporation.

The Myanmar's license committee in a statement said that they were pleased to announce that Telenor Mobile Communications and Ooredoo (Qatar Telecom) have been selected as the two successful applicants.

This was the first time when the country opened up doors for private investors. The move is aimed at aggressively increasing telecom density in the country which currently stands at 10 per cent.

Government-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) is the only telecom operator in the country while Yatanarpon Teleport (YTP)- a joint venture between local private companies and the government is the Internet services provider in Myanmar.

tech-news