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Operator makes high-speed mobile service available at same price as 3G.
Ooredoo Myanmar has begun offering 4G services in the country’s biggest cities, it emerged this week.
According to the operator’s Website, the service is available in select parts of the capital Nay Pyi Taw, as well as Myanmar’s largest city Yangon, and second-largest city Mandalay.
The FAQ section says its 4G service costs the same as its 3G service.
According to a Myanmar Times report on Tuesday, the new service went live on Saturday.
"This is the beginning of a journey," said Rene Meza, CEO of Ooredoo Myanmar, in the report, adding that the rollout will be determined by spectrum availability.
Myanmar’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) had planned to auction 140 MHz of 2.6-GHz spectrum in March. On the block are 100 MHz of FDD spectrum, enough for up to five licences, and 40 MHz of TDD spectrum, or two licences.
However, the process has been postponed due to delays in drawing up the country’s spectrum roadmap.
"As we get more spectrum from the government over the next few months, we’ll continue to expand our coverage, [and] improve the [4G] speeds," said Meza, in Tuesday’s Myanmar Times report.
Ooredoo was one of two international operators, the other being Telenor, to win mobile licences in Myanmar.
Ooredoo launched services in the country in 2014 and at the end of the first quarter it had 6.9 million customers.
According to the Myanmar Times, its customer base has since risen to nearly 7.5 million, leaving it in third place behind Telenor, which has 16 million, and state-run MPT, which has 20 million.
