Myanmar's burgeoning telecoms sector

Myanmar, the last bastion of green field investment in Asean, is heeding the call of development and the global investing community is all excited.

Big boys from everywhere are jostling to be a part of this unfolding growth story, wielding huge shiny blank cheques as large as their gleeful capitalist grins.

In this race towards modernisation, the country's telecoms sector is set to be the first major sector to be liberalised and open to foreign investment. The question on everyone's mind is then: Do local players have big enough clout and coffers to take on the global players?

The good news is that the country is duplicating Malaysia's Communications &Multimedia Act (CMA) (1998) as its new law for the telecoms sector. The categories of licences will be about the same, although there are some subtle changes, especially where terminology is concerned.

Incidentally, they also have Naypyidaw, Myanmar's very own version of Putrajaya.

Officials there have combed through every part of the CMA to make sure they have the best of the Act. The Act allows flexibility for Myanmar to issue as many licences and have as many players as it sees fit.

It was the International Telecommunications Union that had recommended Myanmar to use the CMA, speaking volumes of what Malaysia has achieved with it. Under the new Act, Myanmar will also include the CASP (content application service provider) category to ensure it is in sync with the new demands for content in the market place.

Adopting something proven will help Myanmar push ahead its agenda faster as it is in a rush to push its tele-density to 75 per cent by 2015 from 20 per cent now.

The attractiveness of Myanmar as a market is understandable enough, considering it has a population of more than 60 million and its economy is only now opening up.

While it is laudable that our Act has been replicated, the question is: Do the Malaysian telcos have a fleeting chance of succeeding in that market, especially when the global bigwigs have deep pockets and are unabashed about investing big in that country?

Players already positioned there include some of the well-known names from China, Japan, Europe, Thailand and even Singapore, and they have been working around the clock to land something in this new green field which promises big returns.

Out of all the local players, five have been shown the way and they are Axiata Bhd/Celcom Axiata Bhd, Maxis Bhd, MEASAT Satellite Systems Sdn Bhd, REDtone International Bhd and Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM).

TM is said to be keen on fixed-line connectivity, REDtone on WiMax replication, MEASAT on application and content since satellites are not something Myanmar is looking at right now, and Axiata and Celcom on mobile business.

No doubt the law has not been enforced and the tenders are not out yet, but if these players are serious about wanting a slice of Myanmar's wealth, then no amount of calling or e-mailing or even short trips is going to help. As someone put it, “You have to be physically there to understand and feel the pulse of the market ... that's the name of the game now.''

In short, only those with solid proposals will be considered, as the fight is on a global playing field now and only the serious stand a chance of reaping any rewards.

B.K. Sidhu is deputy news editor, The Star.