NTT Com, NEC, Sumitomo wrap up in Myanmar

Japan's NTT Com, NEC and Sumitomo have completed construction work in their joint project to deploy communications infrastructure in Myanmar.

 

As part of the contract, the three companies have deployed a 30Gbps core optical network between three major Myanmar cities, 50 LTE base stations, a virtualized EPC and more backbone infrastructure.

 

The companies said the new infrastructure will support simultaneous use by 40,000 LTE subscribers, 1.5 million fixed telephone customers and 1 million internet users.

 

The trio were awarded the contract by a Myanmar ministry in May, and formally handed over the network infrastructure to the government yesterday.

 

NEC, NTT Com and Sumitomo will provide operational support for the infrastructure until mid-January 2014, when the contract concludes.

 

The project made use on the 1.71 billion yen ($16.7 million) in development assistance granted to Myanmar by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

 

News of the completed construction came days after Jamaica-based Digicel revealed it has signed an agreement with Ooredoo - one of the two recent winners of Myanmar telecom licenses - to deploy and lease telecom towers to assist with Ooredoo's national rollout.