Price of Burmese Mobiles Slashed, but Call Charges Soar

By MIN LWIN

Central Marketing Company, an affiliate of Htoo Trading Company, is set to launch a new service that will make SIM cards for GSM mobile phones more accessible, but also much more expensive to use.

The service, which will become available from December 12 on a trial basis, is being offered in collaboration with the state-owned Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT). It will initially target foreign residents and tourists, according to business sources in Rangoon.

A source at Htoo Trading Company said that two types of cards will be made available—cards costing 20 FEC (officially equivalent to US $20), which must be used within four weeks, and 10-FEC cards valid for just two weeks.

This contrasts with the official license fee of 1.55 million kyat ($1,240) currently charged by MPT. However, the cost of placing a domestic call will rise dramatically, from 25 kyat (around $0.02) to 350 kyat ($0.30).

“It’s good to hear that the GSM phone SIM cards are cheaper, but at 350 kyat per minute, the charge for making local calls is too high,” said the owner of a shop selling mobile phones in Rangoon’s Yuzana shopping center.

Another factor that is likely to limit the market for the new service is the fact that it will only be available at hotels run by Tay Za, the owner of Htoo Trading Company and a close crony of the country’s military leader, Snr-Gen Than Shwe.

“The hotels and resorts will also offer to sell handsets to customers who want to buy the new SIM cards,” said the source at Htoo Trading.

Business sources in Rangoon said that Tay Za had reached an agreement with the Burmese regime that put him in a position to dominate the telecommunications sector through his effective control of the lucrative GSM mobile phone market.

Htoo Trading Company already plays a major role in the Burmese economy. The company’s business activities range from logging, tourism, hotels, air transport and construction to technological investment in Yadanabon Cyber City in Mandalay.

GSM mobile phones have become an important communications tool in Burma, where there are now more than 200,000 GSM subscribers, according to MPT, which introduced the service in 2002.