{"id":39196,"date":"2013-06-03T06:56:40","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T04:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=39196"},"modified":"2013-06-03T08:51:30","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T06:51:30","slug":"who-will-win-the-race-to-myanmar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/39196\/who-will-win-the-race-to-myanmar\/","title":{"rendered":"Who will win the race to Myanmar?"},"content":{"rendered":"

DigiCel Group<\/a> is being touted as a dark horse to win the race to two mobile licences in South East Asian country, Myanmar.<\/p>\n

DigiCel has just over 13 million\u00a0customers\u00a0across its 31 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and Asia-Pacific, ranking it 65th in the world by subscriber numbers, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

And while this dwarfs its more fancied rivals, on Friday the two biggest operators in the world, Vodafone<\/a> and China Mobile<\/a> pulled out of the running as a joint bidder.<\/p>\n

The consortium was one of 12 groups shortlisted\u00a0to\u00a0own and operate a nationwide network for an initial term of 15 years.<\/p>\n

It still leaves opposition, including the likes of Africa\u2019s biggest operator, MTN<\/a>, which is close to reaching a landmark 200 million customers; India’s largest operator Bharti Airtel<\/a>; and Singapore’s SingTel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Spiwe Chireka<\/a>, program manager of telecoms at the\u00a0IDC<\/a>, DigiCel is not to be underestimated given its backing which includes Quantum Strategic Partners, a fund set up for billionaire George Soros, and Myanmar businessman, Serge Pun.<\/p>\n

It is believed that up to 90 parties had expressed interest in bidding for a licence in Myanmar\u00a0due to its attractive opportunity by virtue of its population (60 million) and low mobile penetration rate (approximately 5%).<\/p>\n

Applicants have been tasked with providing mobile voice services to 75% of the country geographically within 60 months.<\/p>\n

Chireka notes that DigiCel has the advantage of being active in Myanmar for years already, thereby having brand awareness and the ear of government.<\/p>\n

She adds that the company has upped its staff content in the country recently, and has begun buying land to set up cellular towers, referring to a Reuters article which also notes that DigiCel has signed up hundreds of partners for retail outlets.<\/p>\n

This, the media asserts, is a reason for the relatively untried operator being short-listed for such a big project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they (DigiCel) has the inside track for Myanmar,\u201d Chireka said. \u201cMTN has a big battle on its hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The South Africa-based operator has not been idle, however, talking up its chances in the country.<\/p>\n

Late last month, it initiated an awareness campaign in Myanmar, boasting its achievements and track record to fuel its bid.<\/p>\n

More on the Myanmar licence<\/h3>\n

Major consortium drops out of Myanmar race<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN talks up Myanmar prospects<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN\u2019s plunge into $200 SIM card country<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Telecom\u2019s hottest property<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vodacom parent Co in Myanmar licence bid<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN clears first Myanmar hurdle<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN could spend R71bn on acquisition: CEO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN in Myanmar telco licence bunfight<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ufeffDigiCel Group is being touted as a dark horse to win the race to two mobile licences in Myanmar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":36017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1660,1874,5118,5985,5986,26,28,2339,445,737],"class_list":["post-39196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-bharti-airtel","tag-china-mobile","tag-digicel","tag-digicel-group","tag-george-soros","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-singtel","tag-spiwe-chireka","tag-vodafone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39196"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39199,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39196\/revisions\/39199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}