A few weeks back, I raised a few questions about the incompleteness of a report on Myanmar’s international connectivity. I was happy to see today that the gaps have been closed.
MPT, which has sharply increased spending on advertising since losing its monopoly in the mobile market, has been working on new international connectivity that involves bringing to Myanmar, SEA-ME-WE 5, an undersea cable owned by a consortium.
MPT would not say when work would begin on the Myanmar branch of SEA-ME-WE 5. However, Yosuke Fukuma, a public relations adviser to MPT, and U Zaw Htay, an engineer in its overseas department, indicated that it would be operational by the end of 2017. It is expected to come ashore at the beach resort of Ngwe Saung, more than 240 kilometres west of Yangon.
China Unicom has also been working on bringing the new AAE-1 undersea cable into Myanmar, in partnership with the MPT. U Zaw Htay said that currently China Unicom only has a licence to land the cable and transmit connectivity back to China. The company has applied for a license to be able to sell bandwidth within Myanmar as well.
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