Digitalizing Myanmar: Connectivity Developments in Political Transitions – Andrea Calderaro 2) Design and release of a national telecom law: The formation of a set of rules guiding the development of telecom infrastructure, including: licensing regulations, securing an open market, and protecting investor and citizen freedoms; 3) Establishing an independent telecom regulator: Establishing a national telecom regulatory agency, independent from the Ministry and its political agenda, which monitored the application of telecom regulation. While the above mirrors the sequence of the actual Myanmar connectivity plan, as explored in detail below, the experience of implementing these initiatives reveals that such a sequence may not be the most auspicious path to follow. . Below, we explore the connectivity plan along this three-step approach. 2.1 Licensing Of Myanmar’s three telecom development initiatives, licensing has seen the most activity. To this day, all national communication structures are owned by Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT), a division of the government’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT). MTP is the sole landline and mobile operator, as well as internet service provider.3 ). In this preliminary stage of the connectivity building, aware of its lack of credibility, the government did not attempt to maintain its state-controlled mobile operator in the domestic telecom market. Instead, the government launched a call for tender in August 2012, opening the international telecommunication market with the aim of enhancing connectivity in Myanmar. Among the more than ninety companies vying for the license, the government shortlisted twelve in April 2013. This short list included several Asian telecom companies, such as the Indian Bharti AirTel, the Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), the Malaysian Axiata (one of the biggest Asian telco), the Vietnamese Viettel Group, a joint partnership between France Telecom-Orange and the Japanese Marubeni; single runner international companies such as the South Africa’s Mobile Telecom Network (MTN) Group, the Swedish Millicom International Cellular mostly active in Latin America and 3 Yatanarpon Teleport (YPT), which is controlled by MPT, is the only ISP in the country. 5