Digitalizing Myanmar: Connectivity Developments in Political Transitions – Andrea Calderaro Africa, the Qatari Ooredoo, and the Norwegian Telenor; and consortium of companies involving local partners. Despite being shortlisted, Vodafone in partnership with China Mobile withdrew from the competition, after evaluating that the investment was not sufficiently justified by their estimated benefits. a) Awarding Criteria Conditions for the submission of the bid seriously limited the number of companies matching the eligible criteria, excluding de facto single running domestic bidders. The evaluation process consisted of 1500 points to be allocated across bidders, the majority of which (1000 points) were allocated in consideration of eight major criteria: 1) Quality of the network development plan, including the infrastructure plan offered, and coverage of the network (325 points) 2) Strength of the technical plan (125 points) 3) Quality of the marketing strategy, value-added services, and distribution commitment (125 points) 4) Foreseen tariff for all mobile services, including voice, data, and handsets (75 points) 5) Quality of the management of human resources, including its organization and plan to recruit and train local expertise (75 points) 6) Customer services and billing quality (50 points) 7) Corporate social responsibility of the company (50 points) 8) Robustness of the business plan and the financing plan (175 points) An additional 500 points were assigned to the company with the highest spectrum fee offer, while other bidders were assigned points proportionate to their offers. Licenses were awarded to the two companies with the highest combined scores.4 4 Telecommunications Operator Tender Evaluation and Selection Committee (2013). “Telenor Mobile Communications and Ooredoo selected as Successful Applicants in the Nationwide Telecommunications License Award Process”, 27 June 2013. 6