Myanmar (Burma) Telecoms Market Report

Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Publication Date: April 2024

Report Pages: 97

Analyst: Henry Lancaster

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Summary
Table Of Contents

Myanmar’s foreign telcos exit under market pressures

The outlook for Myanmar’s telecom sector – along with the prospects for the rest of the country – appear increasingly grim. A military coup in February 2021 reversed much of the progress made since the telecom market was liberalised in 2014. With one of the two privately-owned mobile operators being forced into a fire sale and a rapid exit (leaving more than 16 million subscribers’ communications exposed to scrutiny from the junta), there appears little chance of Myanmar returning to anywhere near the levels of growth and relative prosperity experienced during the decade of civilian rule.

Following the awarding of two new mobile licenses (to Qatar’s Ooredoo and Norway’s Telenor Group) in 2014, the number of Myanmar’s mobile subscribers more than doubled over the following five years, exceeding a penetration rate above 120%, though since then growth has been more moderate.

Mobile broadband penetration followed a similar trajectory, with spectacular growth from a nascent market in 2013, to reaching a 90% penetration rate by 2017. The onset of the pandemic dampened the growth rate in 2020 and 2021, but it was the return to military law at the start of 2021 which really turned the situation on its head. The coup resulted in a complete shutdown of the internet for April of that year, while the junta’s soldiers also damaged infrastructure such as data centres. Additional tax burdens imposed as part of the Union Tax Law 2021, and charges for new SIM card registrations, have resulted in more expensive services for end-users, and stressed the finances of the key telcos Ooredoo Myanmar and Telenor Myanmar.

Before the coup took place, officials from the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) issued orders for the country’s telcos to install surveillance software (spyware) in their networks to allow the army to eavesdrop on the communications (both voice and data) of private citizens. While the government-backed operators MPT and Mytel were most likely to have complied, Ooredoo and Telenor resisted the demands. That led to the military banning the executives of the private operators from leaving the country, as well as threatening to rescind their mobile licenses. Rather than acceding to such demands, Telenor chose to withdraw from the market completely, largely writing off its business in a fire sale to Lebanon’s M1 Group.

Ooredoo Group delayed following suit until September 2022, when it announced an agreement to sell its local unit to Nine Communications (based in Singapore) for $576 million.

This report includes telcos' financial and operating data updates to December 2022, as well as Telecom Maturity Index charts and analyses, the ITU’s data updates to 2021, and recent market developments.

Key developments:

8,100km Myanmar/Malaysia-India-Singapore Transit (MIST) cable system expected to be completed by end-2023.
Telenor exits the Myanmar mobile market in a fire sale to Lebanon’s M1 following the imposition of military rule.
Ooredoo Group agrees sale of its local Myanmar unit.
Campana Group’s 2,227km Singapore-Myanmar (SIGMAR) system is lit, with a landing station at Thanlyin.
M1 agrees to sell a majority share of its Telenor acquisition to local interests, as dictated by the Ministry of Transport and Communications.
Malaysia carrier Axiata Group puts its planned listing of towerco Edotco on hold due to the political unrest.
E-commerce transactions grew significantly during the pandemic.

Companies mentioned in this report

Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT), ATOM (Telenor Myanmar), Ooredoo Myanmar, Mytel.

Key statistics
Regional Asia market comparison

Market characteristics
Market Leaders
Market Challengers
Market Emergents
TMI vs GDP
Mobile and mobile broadband penetration
Fixed versus mobile broadband penetration

Country overview
Telecommunications market
Regulatory environment

Regulatory authority
Market liberalisation
Mobile developments

SIM cards
Spectrum

Mobile market

Mobile broadband
Mobile infrastructure

5G
LTE
3G
Mobile towers

Major mobile operators

Myanmar P&T (MPT)
Ooredoo
ATOM (Telenor Myanmar)
Myanmar National Tele & Communications (Mytel)

Fixed broadband market

Fixed broadband providers
Fixed wireless broadband providers
Fixed-line broadband technologies

Wi-Fi

Fixed network market
Digital economy

e-Payments
Digital media

Telecommunications infrastructure

International infrastructure

Satellites
Submarine
Terrestrial cables

Smart Infrastructure

Internet of Things (IoT)

Appendix – Historic data
Glossary of abbreviations
Related reports

List of Tables

Table 1 – Top Level Country Statistics and Telco Authorities – 2023 (e)
Table 2 – Change in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Table 3 – Growth in the number of mobile broadband subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Table 4 – Change in the number of MPT’s mobile subscribers – 2011 – 2018
Table 5 – Change in the number of Ooredoo Myanmar’s mobile subscribers – 2014 – 2022
Table 6 – Development of Ooredoo Myanmar’s mobile subscribers by type – 2014 – 2022
Table 7 – Development of Ooredoo Myanmar’s mobile financial data (QAR million) – 2014 – 2022
Table 8 – Development of Ooredoo Myanmar’s mobile ARPU (QAR / month) – 2014 – 2022
Table 9 – Change in the number of Telenor Myanmar’s mobile subscribers – 2014 – 2020
Table 10 – Development of Telenor Myanmar’s mobile ARPU (NOK / month) – 2014 – 2020
Table 11 – Development of Telenor Myanmar’s financial data (NOK million) – 2014 – 2020
Table 12 – Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Table 13 – Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2012 – 2027
Table 14 – Increase in international internet bandwidth – 2011 – 2021
Table 15 – Lit/Equipped international bandwidth capacity – 2014 – 2018
Table 16 – Historic - mobile subscribers, penetration, and annual change – 1996 – 2011
Table 17 – Historic - Internet users and penetration – 2005 – 2016
Table 18 – Historic - fixed-line subscribers, penetration, annual change – 1996 – 2011
Table 19 – Historic - MPT subscribers – 2008 – 2011
Table 20 – Historic - Fixed broadband subscribers and penetration – 2008 – 2011
Table 21 – Historic - Internet household penetration – 2003 – 2016
Table 22 – Historic - Proportion of households with a computer – 2007 – 2017
Table 23 – Historic - International internet bandwidth – 2000 – 2011

List of Charts

Chart 1 – Asia Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Leaders
Chart 2 – Asia Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Challengers
Chart 3 – Asia Telecoms Maturity Index – Market Emergents
Chart 4 – Asia – Telecoms Maturity Index vs GDP per capita
Chart 5 – Asia – Mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 6 – Central Asia – Mobile subscriber penetration vs mobile broadband penetration
Chart 7 – Central Asia – Fixed and mobile broadband penetration
Chart 8 – Change in the number of mobile subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Chart 9 – Growth in the number of mobile broadband subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Chart 10 – Change in the number of Ooredoo Myanmar’s mobile subscribers – 2014 – 2022
Chart 11 – Development of Ooredoo Myanmar’s mobile financial data (QAR million) – 2014 – 2022
Chart 12 – Development of Ooredoo Myanmar’s mobile ARPU (QAR / month) – 2014 – 2022
Chart 13 – Change in the number of Telenor Myanmar’s mobile subscribers – 2014 – 2020
Chart 14 – Development of Telenor Myanmar’s mobile ARPU (NOK / month) – 2014 – 2020
Chart 15 – Development of Telenor Myanmar’s financial data (NOK million) – 2014 – 2020
Chart 16 – Growth in the number of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration – 2012 – 2027
Chart 17 – Change in the number of fixed lines in service and teledensity – 2012 – 2027

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 1 – Map of Telecom Maturity Index global ranking among countries in Asia
Exhibit 2 – Generalised Market Characteristics by Market Segment
Exhibit 3 – Asia – Market Leaders and market developments
Exhibit 4 – Asia – Market Challengers and market developments
Exhibit 5 – Asia – Market Emergents and market developments
Exhibit 6 – Mobile operator by system launch

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Myanmar (Burma) Telecoms Market Report

Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Purchase this Report

Myanmar’s foreign telcos exit under market pressures

Key developments:

Companies mentioned in this report

Key statistics

Regional Asia market comparison

Country overview

Telecommunications market

Regulatory environment

Mobile market

Fixed broadband market

Fixed network market

Digital economy

Telecommunications infrastructure

Appendix – Historic data

Glossary of abbreviations

Related reports

Purchase this Report

Share this Report

TMT Intelligence

A platform to scale your intelligence tasks

Research Methodology

Hot Topics

News & Views