Norwegian telecoms operator Telenor Myanmar announced the launch of its network in Taunggyi in Shan state,
With this expansion, Telenor now serves customers in 11 regions and states – Mandalay, Yangon, Sagaing, Bago, Magway, Ayeyarwaddy, Kayin, Mon, and Kachin, and in union territory Naypyitaw.
Telenor now has a network footprint of more than 2,200 sites, covering more than 50 percent of populated areas across Myanmar.
The company said it expects to rollout between 3,000 and 4,000 towers by end-2015.
“Having built our network in central and urban areas in the early stage of our rollout, our focus over the last few months has been around expanding our services to more rural areas and border states over the coming months,” Petter Furberg, chief executive officer of Telenor Myanmar, said.
“Customers in Myanmar can always trust that Telenor’s network that will reach as many cities, towns and villages as possible within the next 3-4 years,” he said.
Furberg said Telenor will also invest in adding capacity and optimising quality in areas where it’s already present to improve the quality of the network.
“We have a more than 45 sites in Shan state today, and are working closely with our tower partners to grow the reach and quality of our network there in the coming months,” he said
Telenor has deployed more than 900 points-of-sale (POS) in Southern Shan state, including 600 in Taungyi. It works with four main distributors, and have two franchised-owned, franchised-operated (FOFO) stores in the southern state.
“Customers have been very eager to use Telenor in my town, and are happy that they can now join customers from other parts of Myanmar … There are already a large number of customers who own smartphones in Taungyi,” said U Sai Hseng, an authorised Telenor distributor of in Taunggyi.
