Burma awards lucrative mobile phone contracts

Burma has awarded lucrative mobile telecom licences to Norway's Telenor and the Qatari firm Ooredoo, a government committee in charge of bids has said.

The move opens up one of the world's last untapped mobile phone markets.

It is estimated that just 9% of Burma's 60 million people have mobile phones.

Eleven foreign companies were short-listed in their bid to supply telecommunications infrastructure in the country.

The winners overcame fierce competition from the likes of Singtel and Bharti Airtel, as well as a bid by the Digicel group involving one of Burma's richest men, Serge Pun, and the billionaire financier George Soros.