SA's second mobile operator and Africa's largest, MTN, is firing on all cylinders in its marketing efforts to win the South East Asian country of Myanmar over into its fold.
This morning, MTN announced it was stepping up its "awareness campaign" in the country by vaunting its emerging markets acumen.
This comes about a month after the operator was shortlisted for a telecommunications licence in Myanmar, along with 11 other mobile contenders and barely a week after it kicked off an official marketing campaign in the developing country.
MTN is determined to expand its global footprint. The company's latest bid would mean another emerging market rung in its ladder, and a significant boost to its nearly 200 million subscribers across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Currently operating in 22 countries, MTN has market capitalisation of $36 billion (about R338 billion) and annual revenues of $18 billion (about R169 billion).
Serame Taukobong, MTN's chief marketing officer, says MTN intends to roll out a nationwide network, including voice, data, Internet services, mobile money and "other industry-specific services" in Myanmar.
Taukobong says the operator is confident its "demonstrable track record" will stand it in good stead to be awarded one of the two telecommunication licences in Myanmar. He adds MTN's experience in what he says are some of the world's most difficult terrains, would facilitate rapid rollout across all of Myanmar's regions.
"One of our most recent network infrastructure rollout achievements was in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with more than 161 million people, where we brought 1 414 2G and 1 175 3G sites on line during 2012." Last year, MTN Nigeria added 5.8 million subscribers to its network.
Taukobong says a successful bid would also mean the company's workforce of about 27 000 people, comprising over 50 nationalities, would be diversified. "MTN has a proven skills transfer practice through job rotation and cross-border deployment of staff, and these opportunities will also be available to the staff of MTN Myanmar."
MTN further commits to offering training to Myanmar staff across eight streams - including business skills, customer care, commercial, sales and distribution - as part of its internal academy.
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