Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel, which submitted its final technical bid for a telecom licence in Myanmar this week, hopes the India business model of rural outreach and low tariffs will help it clinch the deal.

However, Chairman and Group CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal has his fingers crossed as there are 11 tough competitors for the two licences that the neighbouring country is offering.

“We have made a very serious bid. I think the Indian business model works very well here,” Mittal told Business Line on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum for East Asia in Myanmar.

Mittal said that Myanmar would need a massive rollout of telecom network in the country and much of it would be in the rural area. Low tariff was another major requirement for the market. “We bring all that to the table,” he said.

Although global telecom biggies including China Mobile and Vodaphone have fallen out of the race, Airtel has other tough competitors to deal with including France Telecom-Orange, Quatar Telecom, Telenor and local Myanmar Telephone Company.

Bharti Airtel is keen to be the winner given the enormous size of the market and the geographical coverage it already has in the area.

“It is a fantastic market. It has 60 million people. It is one of the last few frontiers that is undiscovered in the telephony area,” Mittal said.

Myanmar has just about 5.4 million mobile phone subscribers and less than a million Internet users.

The two licences on offer are for expanding coverage to about 80 per cent of the country in the next three years. The licences will be issued by the end of this month.

>amiti.sen@thehindu.co.in

(Trip has been sponsored by Commerce Ministry and CII)

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