Yangon, Sep 11 (IANS): Myanmar government has plans to privatise the telecom industry in the country.

Myanmar's State Posts and Telecommunication (MPT) has worked out a plan to privatise its telecommunications industry for four private operators, reported Xinhua Monday citing local media.

According to the Myanmar Times, under a step-by-step privatisation process, the MPT will be abolished and reformed as Myanmar Telecom, which will operate without funding from the government. Yatanarpon Teleport will be merged into a new company named Yatanarpon Telecom.

Two other private operators, which could be foreign firms, would join in to offer mobile connections, landline telephones, a public switchboard telephone network, information technology and internet services, the report said.

A telecom corporation will be set up by the end of the year and then the MPT will call for international tenders and the winning operators should be ready for running by 2013.

Targeting to upgrade user density from 75 percent to 80 percent by 2016, a process will start in 2013 to raise the number of users to 39.5 million by 2016, the report said.

According to the MPT statistics, only three million people in Myanmar have their own landline or mobile, a density of 5.6 percent.

Also, a law to govern the privatisation of telecommunications is expected to be enacted by year-end.