ALL FOUR TELECOM operators in Myanmar managed to capitalise on their participation at the recent Mobile World Congress2019 in Barcelona last week, said an official and senior executive of the telcos.

SoeThein, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology who led the Myanmar delegation to MWC19, said all the operators gave impressive demonstrations at the event when he visited the booths of Telenor, Ooredoo and Mytel.

“In Myanmar, the network security system plays a very important role. The devices manufactured by Viettel [which takes the majority of Mytel’s shares] made the biggest impression on me,” he said.

He said the Ministry’s preparations are well underway for Myanmar’s future embrace of 5G, and will continue to support all operators.

“Currently, we are in the process of developing the environment and the legal basis to get ready for the upcoming 5G technology wave,” he said.

The official said the deployment of 5G networks by Myanmar telcos would emerge over the next few years, as all operators vied for the leadership position in 5G technology.

VikramSinha, board member of Ooredoo Myanmar, made a presentation on the telco’s commitment to support the nation’s digital transformation journey. “We showcased what we have done at Ooredoo Myanmar, to put Myanmar in the global digital arena on par with developed countries,” he said.

“Our team is geared up to provide more innovative digitalised services and products, combined with the best customer experiences to continue leading as a digital enabler.”

Serving more than 10 million SIM subscribers, Ooredoo Myanmar now covers 92 per cent of Myanmar’s population with its network. Driven by digitalisation and customer centricity, the firm launched many digital-based products and services last year and achieved many milestones in its digital journey, said Sinha.

“Everyone thinks of Myanmar as a Third World country, and so now is the best time for us to showcase Myanmar on track for transformation to a digital country,” he said.

SharadMehrotra, chief executive of Telenor Myanmar, took part in the congress along with its chief technology officer, Jai Prakash.

“We understand that MWC is an important arena to engage and collaborate with partners, businesses and authorities from markets in which Telenor operates, as well as those outside our footprint,” said Mehrotra.

He said the Myanmar telco also joined several representatives from Norway’s Telenor Group parent and its business units around the world to participate in the event. Serving more than 18 million customers with 8,300 sites and over 100,000 points-of-sale nationwide, Telenor Myanmar recently introduced a low-cost data-roaming package for its users visiting Thailand.

Zaw Min Oo, chief external relations officer at Mytel, said the operator launched the latest solutions and products in four core areas at MWC19 – smart telco, smart cities, network security and smart marine communication.

Having achieved more than 5 million subscribers after only seven months in operation, Mytel plans to double that to 10 million subscribers in Myanmar by year-end, he said.

Huawei as a key player

Liman Zhang, chief executive of Huawei Myanmar, said at an interview the firm’s carrier business remained stable last year, and continues to enjoy a healthy growth from this year onwards.

“In the telecom network field, we have been the first in the world many years ago. Now, the intelligent terminal business has become the second place in the world,” he said.

Huawei started from 2B (carrier and enterprise services), and has been involved in 2C business (consumer and cloud services) since the past few years. The firm takes pride in becoming one of the very few companies in the world that can do well in 2B business and be able to make 2C business very successful, Zhang added.

“Different businesses have different marketing and development strategies, but whatever business is aligned with end consumers,” he said.

During the interview at MWC19, Zhang reminisced about the development of Myanmar’s telecom market which started very late. Before 2013, Myanmar was basically information silos, and the mobile penetration rate was less than 2 per cent of the population. Huawei has been cooperating with telcos such as MPT, Telenor, Ooredoo, and Mytel, with the rapid deployment of communications networks in Myanmar since the beginning of Myanmar’s telecom sector reforms.

“In collaboration with our partners, we have brought Myanmar from information silos to the information society in a few years, greatly changing the development of various industries and people’s work and life,” he said.

According to Zhang, the firm helps Myanmar rapidly and efficiently deploy informatisation systems and services for various industries, such as retail, logistics, transportation, education, media assets, and medical care. Yet, the executive sees much room for improvement, compared to other countries.

“4G penetration rate is less than 20 per cent [of the population], and the home broadband penetration rate is only about 2per cent, which is obviously behind other countries in Southeast Asia,” he said.

During the interview, Zhang was also quick to express his confidence in the future of Huawei in Myanmar, provided that Myanmar is an emerging market for the ICT industry.

“Myanmar is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. It is expected to continue in the next few years and has a large population,” he said.

“Myanmar is very important to Huawei, and Huawei is also very important to Myanmar,” added Zhang.