Telecoms & IT
From The Report: Mongolia 2014
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In 2012 the ICT sector as a whole posted total revenues of MNT650bn ($390m), up more than 17% from the previous years, according to the Information Technology, Post and Telecoms Authority. In the telecoms segment, the country’s four mobile operators are making plans for a considerable amount of capital expenditure in order to meet the needs of Mongolia’s rural population and to develop new higher-speed networks in Ulaanbaatar and a small number of other population centres. The country’s new foreign investment law has been widely praised and is expected to result in new interest from foreign investors. Mongolia’s reputation as a centre for ICT in Central Asia has risen considerably in recent years. On the World Economic Forum’s 2013 Networked Readiness Index, for example, the country was ranked 59th place out of 142 nations, up from 63rd place the prior year. With planned developments in mind, many local players expect to see increased levels of competition, potentially from international players.
This chapter contains interviews with David Holliday, CEO, MobiCom; and N. Battulga, Executive Director, ITZone.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

An expansive view: The sector is growing rapidly, largely on the back of data uptake
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With rapidly rising demand for telecommunications services and increasingly intense price competition in the mobile market in recent years, Mongolia is poised for substantial expansion in the foreseeable future. Mobile subscriptions have expanded rapidly, from fewer than 160,000 in 2000 to more than 3m as of the end of 2012, according to data from the Communications Regulatory Commission of Mongolia (CRC), the telecoms regulatory authority. The nation’s four major mobile operators – namely MobiCom,…

Analysis

Data on demand: Seeking higher revenues, mobile operators invest in data services
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Over the course of the past decade mobile telecommunications uptake in Mongolia has increased rapidly. Since 2003 the number of mobile subscribers in the country has expanded nearly 10-fold, from 319,000 in 2003 to 3.38m as of the end of 2012, according to data from the Communications Regulatory Commission of Mongolia (CRC). This represents a jump in mobile penetration from around 13% in 2003 to more than 106% as of 2012. This rapid growth has been a boon for the nation’s four mobile operators,…

Interview

OBG talks to David Holliday, CEO, MobiCom
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Interview:David Holliday Which value-added services will drive growth for Mongolian mobile operators in the medium term? DAVID HOLLIDAY: As tablet and smartphone penetration levels become more prevalent, the demand for data will grow exponentially. People are gravitating much more towards new applications for their mobile devices, and this shows that many Mongolians are hungry for cellular data packages. Developing new content for 3G users, especially vibrant Mongolian content, will be essential…

Interview

OBG talks to Norolkhoojav Battulga, Executive Director, ITZ one
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Interview:Norolkhoojav Battulga What challenges could local IT companies face with the arrival of more foreign players in Mongolia? NOROLKHOOJAV BATTULGA: Before talking about foreign involvement, we have to talk about the size of the local market. Currently, the Mongolian market does not have room for a large-scale expansion of foreign IT companies. At this point, big foreign players open a representative office and appoint maybe one person in charge of operations in Mongolia. Foreign companies…

Overview

A growth market: High network capacity and rapid uptake signal future opportunities
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While Mongolia’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry is relatively young by international standards, the country is widely regarded as an emerging centre of technology in Asia. The government, alongside a handful of leading private sector companies, has invested heavily in the nation’s fibre-optic networks and other technologies over the past decade, which has resulted in a rapid rate of growth in bandwidth in recent year. According to data from the Information Technology,…

Analysis

Fortuitous geography: New high-speed international bandwidth
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Mongolia’s fibre-optic infrastructure is widely regarded as among the best in the region in terms of reach, capacity and speed. As of the end of July 2013 the country’s five fibre-optic cable networks together totalled 18,343 km in length, according to data from ErdemNet, a local internet service provider (ISP). Gemnet, a private operator, controls the great majority of this capacity, though much of the country’s physical network infrastructure is owned by the government. At the same time,…