Telenor has ended its first full year of operations in Myanmar with 14 million subscribers and the largest towers network in the country, the company said yesterday.





The Norwegian telecoms operator’s fourth-quarter results show a net subscriber growth of 1.9 million over the past three months. This equates to a SIM market share of around 37 percent, the company said.

International competitor Ooredoo has yet to announce its Q4 results, but counted 4.8 million customers to its base against Telenor’s 11.8 million at the end of Q3. State incumbent Myanma Posts and Telecommunications had 16 million users by November last year.

Of its user base, Telenor said 52pc of subscribers are active data users, comparable to more developed markets such as Malaysia and Thailand.

“Telenor today operates the largest 3G network in Myanmar, spanning more than 4500 sites in all states and regions,” said CEO Petter Furberg in a statement. “We estimate population coverage to be in excess of 62pc, covering 90pc of townships in Myanmar either in whole or in part.”

The operator aims to have 9000 live sites when its rollout is complete.

The company has also built more than 6850 kilometres (4250 miles) of fibre for running operations, including over 6500km of backbone fibre and 350km of metro fibre, Mr Furberg said. “We will continue investing in our fiber rollout domestically, and in our international links.”





In an interview with The Myanmar Times yesterday Mr Furberg said slowing user growth was to be expected. “You cannot continue to grow at the same pace in a market that is becoming more penetrated. [In rural areas] we are now adding less and less of the population with each new site.”

The same goes for average revenue per user, he said. “As the rollout becomes more rural we are bringing on customers with smaller pockets so we expect to see ARPU continue to decline.”

This quarter average revenue per user was K5995, 4pc lower than normalised ARPU for the third quarter.

The rollout has picked up speed as local telecom towers companies build capacity, Mr Furberg said. Telenor now has contracts with six tower firms.

The group’s Myanmar revenues in local currency increased by 14pc in the fourth quarter over normalised revenues for Q3, the company said, driven by strong subscription growth.

Fourth-quarter EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] before other items was 610 million Norwegian krone (US$71.47 million). Myanmar made a “significant contribution” to the group’s worldwide revenues, Telenor said in a statement.

As the rollout continues into more remote areas, competition between the three operators will increase. To add to the challenge, a fourth operator licence has been tendered and a local-foreign joint venture is likely to enter the market later this year.

Mr Furberg said yesterday that Telenor had always bargained on competing against a fourth operator.

“That’s something we always assumed. I don’t think it will change our strategy,” he said.