Telenor Myanmar has signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia telecoms service provider OCK Group and its local Myanmar partner, King Royal Technologies, the Shah Alam-based company announced last week.
The agreement, which is for building and leasing towers, adds another firm to Telenor’s inventory of infrastructure providers. OCK Group subsidiary OCK Yangon – set up in 2013 – is the local licence- holder for towers activities.
Telenor Myanmar’s head of communications, Joachim Rajaram, said in an email that Telenor is hiring new towers companies because it must grow its supply chain. Its licence obligates Telenor Myanmar to cover 90 percent of the country within five years, he said.
“To date, we have built close to 3700 sites in 13 states and regions in Myanmar, and believe that we will need to build close to 9000 sites in order to provide solid nationwide voice and data coverage,” he said.
These figures indicate Telenor has about 60pc of its tower construction ahead of it.
“We see the clear need to expand our supply chain to secure and build sites, as rollout progresses from high density urban areas and large townships to smaller towns, villages and rural areas, and we continue to work closely with all existing partners to accelerate rollout,” Mr Rajaram said.
As reported by The Myanmar Times in May, the Norwegian telecoms operator topped up on its infrastructure orders with Apollo Towers and Eco-Friendly Towers under Young Investment Group, asking both to deliver around 700 towers.
In 2014, Irrawaddy Green Towers announced Telenor had chosen it to provide 1438 towers – more than 70pc of the telco’s total in its early days of operation.
The MOU announcement said that all parties involved in the deal hoped to conclude the agreement in the next few weeks.
Though Malaysian media had reported details on the Telenor contract – saying the agreement was a 12-year deal to build and lease more than 900 towers – Mr Rajaram said the terms of the agreement were still being negotiated.
Source: Myanmar Times
