While teaching a course on policy and regulation at a very nice, generator-equipped hotel in Taungoo, I was struck by how bad the Internet was and how unstable the electricity supply was. We are used to working closely with the office while on the road, but this proved too difficult in Taungoo and one of us had to advance the departure by one day to ensure projects did not get disrupted.
The importance of electricity has been picked up by this analyst, as reported.
The costs of Internet subscriptions are expected to decline gradually, particularly for equipment and administrative fees. Announcements that a high-speed Internet cable network is being built this year, and more hydropower dams over the next few years, will have excited the market, it said.
Reduced costs and stability for Internet connectivity as well as electricity supply will inspire confidence in businesses and consumers to start investing in acquiring/upgrading not just PCs but also other devices, as these tools are essential for growth.
“As the economy blossoms, the market will also more actively roll out productivity tools for work and study. Desktop PCs, and to a lesser extent notebook PCs, have generally sold poorly over the years as the government battled to generate sufficient power supply for basic needs.“But as income levels rise, Internet costs decline and more hydropower plants are built, IDC expects the PC market to move into a healthy growth track. So the outlook for Myanmar’s personal devices market is very bright; all that remains is to figure out how to tap into its potential,” Pang said.
Perhaps, we should be teaching about how to fix the electricity sector, in addition to the telecom sector?
Comments are closed.