Myanmar s first GSM network finally launched

Myanmar gets its first GSM network after two years delay. Myanmar s first GSM network has finally been commercially launched, two years later than planned, state mouthpiece The Myanmar Times has reported.The GSM system, supplied by Siemens and China s ZTE, was launched in March 2001 but has been kept in the trial stage, with only around 200 users, by Myanmar s state-run telco Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT).

The 2001 launch was already a year later than the planned launch date of May 2000.MPT has said the delay was due to extensive trials to ensure the network ran smoothly, but reports from media outside Myanmar have suggested that conflicts between rival shareholders and political machinations have held up the system s commercial launch.

The GSM system was developed in conjunction with Myanmar Sky-Link, the local partner of Sky-Link Communications, based in the British Virgin Islands, which was contracted on a build-transfer arrangement with the MPT, according to telecomasia.net. Sky-Link is a little-know company, but Thailand-based publication Irrawaddy has reported that Sandar Win - daughter of former Burmese dictator Ne Win - is a major shareholder in Myanmar Sky-Link.

The GSM network offers a capacity of 70,000 users in capital city Yangon and 30,000 in Mandalay. No roaming agreements have yet been signed, although MPT says the first will likely be with other south East Asian countries, according to The Myanmar Times.MPT also operates an AMPS system established in 1993 with help from Ericsson Australia and Loxley of Thailand, and a CDMA network launched in 1997 courtesy of UCOM in Singapore.

However, the networks have so far only attracted roughly 30,000 subscribers - two-thirds of them for the CDMA network.