I understand that smartphone penetration is even higher according to the 2016 survey, where the analysis is almost complete. But here is what the ITU says about Myanmar’s ICT progress, using LIRNEasia’s 2015 data:
These improvements in affordability and network availability help to explain the country’s fast
Internet uptake, supported by two other trends that distinguish Myanmar from neighbouring
markets. Firstly, smartphone penetration is very high, reaching 66 per cent of phone owners in
early 2015 according to a survey by the independent research institute LIRNEasia.18 According to
Ooredoo, as many as 80 per cent of mobile-phone users opt for smartphones (Oxford Business
Group, 2015). Secondly, growth in data usage has overtaken growth in voice traffic. Data
from Telenor indicate that data usage grew by 196 per cent between January and June 2015,
compared with 93 per cent for voice traffic (Oxford Business Group, 2015). As many as 52 per
cent of Telenor’s mobile-phone subscribers are active data users.
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