The Myanmar government has announced 12 pre-qualified applicants for the allocation of two national telecom licences. The 12 prequalified companies are as follows: Airtel consortuim; Axiata Group Berhad; Digicel; the France Telecom–Orange– Marubeni consortium; the KDDI Corporation– Sumitomo Corporation–Myanmar Information and Communication Technology Development Corporation Construction Consortuim; Millicom International Cellular SA; the MTN Consortium (MTN Dubai–M1 Telecom–Amara Communications); Qatar Telecom QSC; the Singapore Telecommunications– KBZ–Myanmar Telephone Company Limited consortuim; Telenor Mobile Communications AS; the Viettel Group; and the Vodafone-China Mobile consortuim. Further, pre-qualified applicants are required to submit their applications to the committee by June 3, 2013. The tender for the EoIs floated by the Myanmar government received applications from 91 entities. This is the first time that Myanmar is opening up its sector for private investments, with the aim to increase the overall teledensity of the country from under 10 per cent to 75–80 per cent by 2015–16.
