Boston, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/04/2014 -- Executive summary

Lao mobile market finds new impetus in aftermath of the Beeline dispute

Note: This report has been updated with newly available statistics (May 2013), resulting in the revision of tables and forecasts.

The telecom sector in Laos still has issues to address. The rate of regulatory reform continues to be well behind wider industry development, even for a developing economy like Laos. The delays in reform have the potential to derail the good progress already made if the process is not speeded up. An insight into this situation was provided in 2011 with the effective isolation of the local Beeline business by the other three mobile operators, Lao Telecom, ETL and Unitel. The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPT), acting in its regulatory role, took the side of the three operators in the dispute. After a long stand-off Beeline was finally reconnected by the other operators. It was clear however that the underlying issues had not been resolved.

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On a business front it is fair to say the business is booming on the back of a strong local economy. In the last five or six years there has been a noticeable shift in the economic and social outlook for Laos. After a number of decades of having to struggle with a poorly performing economy and a commercial environment that was in desperate need of reform, there is now positive news being reported on many fronts for this nation of just over six million people. Most importantly, a significant number of hydro-electric power projects and mining ventures have become reality, with more set to come on line, and even more possible projects are in the pipeline. Laos is finally moving forward in what might be described as a confident fashion. At the same time there has been progress in the strengthening of both the national telecommunications infrastructure and its regulatory regime, although this has not always gone smoothly. One of the major challenges has been the effort to attract more foreign investment into the sector and this remains tightly linked to reform of the regulatory regime.

The building of the country's infrastructure continues to be a priority. By early 2013 fixed-line teledensity was still low at around two telephones per 100 people, with limited growth occurring in that segment of the market;

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