YTP to form local consortium for fourth licence

State-backed internet service provider (ISP) Yatanarpon Teleport (YTP) is looking to form a committee of local partners to enter a joint bid for Myanmar’s fourth mobile concession, Myanmar Times writes, citing YTP CEO U Shane Thu Aung. ‘We are founding a new consortium under the direction of a management committee, which includes the deputy minister of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), and we are working to make sure the steps are correct and transparent,’ the official explained. In addition to local players, YTP plans to involve a foreign partner in the new consortium: ‘The second stage will be forming a joint venture with a foreign partner, which will be done through a transparent selection process, according to the guidelines of the management committee.’ As previously reported by CommsUpdate, YTP has been involved in talks with several foreign partners, but negotiations with Thailand’s True fell through in September 2014. It was then announced in December that Viettel Group was close to signing a deal with the Myanmar ISP, but there have be no subsequent announcements, suggesting that the proposed partnership may have been scrapped, although the YTP official refused to comment on whether the Vietnamese telecoms group would be involved in the selection process.