With Myanmar’s telecom penetration rate already above 75%, operators should focus on the enterprise segment for continued growth. In the first installment of this three-part report, we look at the growing size of Myanmar’s enterprise sector and the opportunity it presents for telcos
Until recently, operators globally were hardly interested in the enterprise business, given the rapid growth they experienced in the B2C space. However, costly spectrum purchases, high debt burden, saturating urban mobility markets and depletion of VAS revenue due to ever-growing commoditization of voice and data plans have shifted their focus to the previously unattractive enterprise segment.
This trend is global. If operators do not find new retail uses for their expanded capacity, they will suffer significant losses. However, the convergence of IT and telecom has opened another avenue for the telco operators in the enterprise ICT space.
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For some of the regional markets, the opportunity is already huge. In India, DNA estimated the enterprise telecom ICT market to be $4 billion in 2014. For some of the regional operators, the enterprise segment has already become critical. An example would be Tata Teleservices in India, whereby the enterprise segment accounts for 30% of the company’s revenue and is growing 15% year on year. Another India operator, RCOM, has an enterprise clientele base that includes over 39,000 Indian and multinational corporations, including SMEs. The enterprise segment contributes a substantial amount of revenue for many regional operators (see Figure 1).
Nascent telecoms markets like Myanmar are by no means excluded from this opportunity. Indeed, as the initial euphoria settles down in the Myanmar telecom market with a penetration rate already approaching 77%, Myanmar operators should focus on continued growth by putting emphasis on their efforts in the enterprise segment.