Cisco, Google, Intel, HP, and Over 90 Telcos All Want To Get In On Myanmar

In terms of tech, Myanmar is heating up. It’s uncharted territory. It’s a digital wasteland. And everybody wants to get in on the action before their business rivals can do so.

Singaporean, Norwegian, Malaysian and Vietnamese telcos are already rushing in – and the latest is Cisco, the networking and telecoms giant.

Cisco revealed today that it’s planning to open up two network training centers in Myanmar by an unspecified date. It’s very possible that these training centers will be targeted at getting SME’s and large businesses set up with networks.

Foreseeably, by the end of next year, the technosphere of Myanmar will explode – in a good way.

Today, SIM cards cost anywhere from $300 to $500, leaving only one in every ten people in the country with mobile access. Internet penetration sits far below ten percent, and most people in Myanmar still only have a laptop if someone brings one in from abroad. And yet, at the same time, BarcampYangon is the biggest technology conference in the world. That means Myanmar is ripe for the pickings and the big tech companies know it.

With over 90 companies bidding for telco licenses to operate in the country, and companies like Google, Microsoft, HP, Intel, and Cisco visiting and possibly planning to open offices, by the end of 2014 we’ll be looking at a completely different Myanmar. It’s hard to imagine how a country will fare with extremely rapid technological development. If, for example, SIMs come down to a regular Southeast Asian level of pricing, about $5 each, we’ll see Myanmar’s citizens joining the mobile web. By 2014, I’m guessing eight out of ten people in Myanmar will have a mobile, and they’ll be keen to jump on social networks and try out mobile commerce.

(Source: Associated Press)