Telenor has celebrated the expansion of its 4G service to three cities in Bago Region and plans to add more urban centres to the network in the coming months, it said in a December 22 news release.
The expansion of the network to the regional capital, Bago, and to Pyay and Taungoo follows Telenor’s launch of 4G in Nay Pyi Taw in July, the release said.
“Expansion of our 4G services to more cities underscores one of our commitments to delivering the best data network experience for our customers,” said Mr Lars Erik Tellmann, chief executive officer at Telenor Myanmar.
“We will expand our 4G network to a few more cities in the coming months,” he said.
Tellmann said there had been “hyper-growth” in data adoption in Myanmar and more than 64 percent of Telenor’s customers were data users.
Telenor has so far invested US$1.5 billion (about K2 trillion) in Myanmar and anticipates continued spending to improve coverage and quality, and to roll out 4G services, said the release.
The award of 1800 MHz spectrum during the first quarter of 2017 would pave the way for “real 4G” with extra high-speed capacity, Tellmann said.
Telenor is providing its 2G, 3G and 4G services on spectrum allocations of 900MHz and 2100 MHz, the release said.
It said Telenor was Myanmar’s largest and fastest growing data network, with coverage in all states and regions, including remote areas, totaling nearly 90 percent of the country’s 330 townships.
Norway-based Telenor and Qatar’s Ooredoo entered the mobile phone market in 2014, ending a monopoly held by state-owned Myanma Posts and Telecommunications.
MPT, which formed a partnership in 2014 with Japanese companies KDDI and Sumitomo Corporation, leads the market with about 21 million subscribers, Reuters reported in November.
Telenor is second with 18 million subscribers, and Ooredoo has reported 9 million subscribers, the report said.
