MPT exchanging all 3G SIM cards for 4G cards in Mandalay

Cap: MPT 3G SIM Card users being seen at the MPT Sale Division in Mandalay. Photo: Thiha Ko Ko (Mdy)

Myanmar Post and Telecommunication (MPT) and KSG Company of Japan have launched a 4G network service in Nay Pyi Taw and some places in Yangon during the first week of October to give users access to a faster network.

The effort is part of MPT’s measures to launch a 4G network in Yangon and Mandalay by the first quarter of 2017. MPT has also issued Regular/ Micro/ Nano SIM Cards of an international standard so that MPT users have no need to cut the SIM cards. Since the last week of October, MPT has exchanged the 3G SIM Cards of MPT users for 4G SIM Cards at the MPT Sales Division in Mandalay without charge.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has announced that mobile phone users will have to register their SIM cards starting 18 October.

MPT said that, starting from 31 March 2017, all unregistered SIM cards will be blocked.

In Southeast Asia and Oceania in 2015, only 5 per cent of all mobile subscriptions were 4G – but the figure is expected to increase to more than 40 per cent by 2021, according to the Ericsson Mobility Report 2016. Telecoms competitors Ooredoo and Telenor launched 4G networks earlier this year. — Thiha Ko Ko (Mandalay)