Myanmar to add 80,000 more mobile phones in 2 cities

The Myanmar telecommunications authorities will add 80,000 more new GSM mobile phones in two major cities of the country to facilitate users in a bid to enhance the development of the telecommunication sector, a local weekly reported Monday.

The mobile phones will be added in Yangon and Mandalay for the current fiscal year 2006-07, the Flower News quoted the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) as saying.

There have been over 140,000 mobile phones in Myanmar now since the 1990s when such phones were first introduced.

According to the MPT, GSM phones in Myanmar can auto-roam 21 townships far up to the border areas also mainly covering Monywa, Mawlamyine, Bagan, Ngwesaung, Chaungtha, Taunggyi, Kyaingtong, Tachilek, Lashio and Muse in addition to Yangon and Mandalay.

Official statistics show that the number of various types of telephones in Myanmar reached 513,301 as of March this year, the end of the previous fiscal year 2005-06.

Of the total, mobile phones such as GSM, cellular and CDMA accounted for 146,321, while the auto fixed telephones remained at 303,228.

Under the current population in Yangon which stands at 5.2 million now, there will be one GSM phone per 43 persons in the near future, up from one GSM phone per 64 persons now.

Mobile phones were first introduced in Myanmar with cellular ones in 1993, the DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) in 1997 and the GSM (Global System for Mobile) in 2002.

Source: Xinhua