French telco Orange would be eager to partner with state-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) to help develop telecommunications in the Southeast Asian nation, if invited to do so.
The Myanmar government announced at the Myanmar Connect 2013…
French telco Orange would be eager to partner with state-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) to help develop telecommunications in the Southeast Asian nation, if invited to do so.
The Myanmar government announced at the Myanmar Connect 2013 conference in September that it would look for a strategic partner for MPT to help it stand up to competition from its new foreign rivals, an Orange spokesperson explained.
“Orange would be very keen to contribute to the development of telecommunications in Myanmar through such a partnership, and if the government was to launch a process to choose a partner we would take part in it.”
The Financial Times reported over the weekend that Myanmar has invited Orange, the UK’s Vodafone, Singapore’s SingTel as well as other leading communications companies to create a privately-run partnership with MPT.
However, details are sketchy. One source was quoted as saying that it is not clear how many partners the government is looking for, whether it is interested in a financial or technical partner, or what MPT’s financial position is.
Vodafone declined to comment on the matter, while SingTel and MPT were not immediately available.
Orange, in partnership with Japanese operator Marubeni, was the runner-up in Myanmar’s hotly-contested auction for nationwide spectrum licences in June, in which Qatar’s Ooredoo and Norway’s Telenor emerged the winners.
Vodafone and SingTel also took part of in the auction. However, the UK operator and partner China Mobile withdrew from the process, saying government-set conditions did not meet their investment criteria.
