Ooredoo to invest $350m in Myanmar

31/01/2016 05:55 AST

Ooredoo is investing more in Myanmar this year in a bid to broaden its appeal, the head of its local unit said, brushing aside suggestions that it would exit one of Southeast Asia’s fastest growing markets.

Ooredoo had focused on providing costly, higher-margin data services in a country that remains largely poor, a strategy its Myanmar Chief Executive Rene Meza said would now give way to a more “mass market” approach.

Ooredoo is already facing stiff competition from Norway’s Telenor and market leader state-backed Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).

“We don’t see any slowdown in investment, any slowdown in executing our strategic initial plans for Myanmar,” Meza said in an interview. “Our commitment to continue investing remains pretty much intact.”

Asked about a potential exit, he said the company had plans to invest $350m this year, on top of the $1.7bn it has invested since starting operations in 2014. “I’ll leave the answer to you,” he said.

MPT boasts 18 million customers, while Telenor has 12 million. In a bid to bridge the gap, Meza said Ooredoo had slashed data prices from 10 kyat ($0.009) per MB to 6 kyat per MB last year and would also expand its distribution network. “The initial approach when we launched services was not a mass market approach,” said Meza, who took over as CEO last year.

“As you can imagine, it is a fast moving market. One year of delay, in terms of the right commercial execution, basically means the gap that you see in the market today.”

Mobile penetration in Myanmar is just over 60 percent, far lower than other Southeast Asian nations.

The Peninsula