Battle for Myanmar mobile market heats up

Yangon - Norway-based telecoms giant Telenor announced on Friday that it would start mobile services in Myanmar's second-largest city Mandalay over the weekend, as it vies for market share in the country's recently opened-up mobile sector.

Telenor said it would start its service in Mandalay on Saturday, then expand to the capital Nay Pyi Taw and then Yangon.

"Firstly we target nearly nine million people living in these three area," said Petter-Boerre Furberg, CEO of Telenor Myanmar.

Telenor and Qatar-based Ooredoo are the only wholly foreign-owned mobile operators to be given licences in Myanmar, which has rapidly opened up to foreign investment as part of economic and political reforms introduced by President Thein Sein.

In August 2014, Ooredoo launched its services in the country's three biggest cities and now has one million customers.

The state-run Myanmar Post and Telecommunication (MPT) has plans to expand its existing network in partnership with Japan's second-largest wireless carrier KDDI and Sumitomo.