Activity remains high for towercos present in Myanmar, as the country’s three licence holders race to cover 90% of the population.
Telenor Myanmar has reportedly inked a memorandum of understanding with Malaysian telecom vendor OCK Group and its local partner King Royal Technologies.
Telenor Myanmar communications head Joachim Rajaram was cited telling the Myanmar Times that the company wanted to work with more towercos to ensure it could increase its current portfolio of 3,700 local towers to its target 9,000.
He declined comment on a Malaysian report suggesting discussions centred around a 12-year deal involving 900 towers. A spokesperson for the Oslo-based Telenor Group was not available for further comment before the press deadline.
Under its licence, won in 2013, Telenor must serve 90% of the country within five years.
Telenor reportedly signed two deals, each for 700 towers, with Apollo Towers and Eco-Friendly Towers in May. Last year, it commissioned another 1,438 from Irrawaddy Green Towers.
OCK set up an independent towerco serving Malaysian operators in 2012.
In October, Edotco, a Malaysian telecom infrastructure business owned by Axiata, acquired the majority of Myanmar Tower Company(MTC) from Digicel. Ooredoo’s local business is the anchor tenant of MTC.
This July, Telenor said its subscriber base in Myanmar had surpassed 10 million, while Ooredoo said it had 3.3 million customers at the end of April. The two companies compete with MPT, a joint venture between the telecoms ministry and Japanese telco KDDI.