State-owned MPT, the largest mobile operator in Myanmar, announced it expanded LTE-Advanced service to 40 additional townships, taking its mobile broadband coverage to 256 townships.

Reizo Umeda, MPT’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement: “We are pleased to announce that we have surpassed the 250-township mark this month, which is a huge jump from our update last month of just over 200 townships covered at the start of October.”

The country of 53.6 million has 330 townships.

The operator, with a 47 per cent market share, said it is on track to cover more than 300 townships in the country by the end of 2018. It partnered with Japan-based operator KDDI to launch 4G service in three cities in May 2017. It had 1.9 million 4G connections, or 7.2 per cent of its total of 26.3 million, at end-September, data from GSMA Intelligence showed.

In September MPT and Telenor Myanmar, the second largest mobile player, announced plans to accelerate their 4G rollouts, with the goal of reaching 300 townships by year-end.

Third ranked Ooredoo Myanmar said in July it rolled out 4G across 244 townships, reaching about 16 million people.