About

With a portfolio of over 1,450 telecommunications towers in Myanmar, edotco Myanmar, a subsidiary of edotco Group, is an integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company providing end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector. edotco Group, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, was established in 2012 as the first integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company in Asia, its portfolio has since grown to include over 26,000 towers across the region. Andrew Gale, who has been the edotco Myanmar’s most senior lawyer and director of corporate affairs and planning, has led the corporate affairs department, which includes the legal and regulatory, government relations and permit teams. Gale joined in May 2014 and remained with the company following its acquisition of Digicel’s Myanmar Tower Company (MTC). The edotco Myanmar legal team comprises of 13 lawyers and one legal translator. It is spread across five offices, with a head office in Yangon and regional offices in Mawlamyine, Mandalay, Pyay and outer Yangon. Within the department there are three senior lawyers: legal manager Deepti Jayakrishnan, the experienced Myanmar land lawyer and assistant legal manager U Peng Kulh, and Kaung Htet Zaw who studied law and worked in Australian before returning to live in Myanmar. Although the legal team have faced challenges of advising on legal and regulatory in a country that has recently opened to foreign capital, they have nonetheless been a driving force in the organisation’s progress from a start-up to one of Myanmar’s leading telecommunications providers and largest companies. The team have accomplished this by utilising their extensive skillset and competence in overseeing site acquisitions, complex master lease agreements and financings. Recently the team have been involved in successfully defended a case in Kayin State against a government department that tried to enforce the dismantlement of a legal telecoms tower without following due process. They also helped to set up Myanmar’s first tower industry association, bringing competing tower companies together to speak as one voice on issues facing the industry and the promotion of best practices in infrastructure sharing. In addition, the team were recently commended for closing extensive infrastructure agreements with all four mobile operators and two internet service providers. On this latest development, Gale says ‘such framework agreements pave the way for long term growth and have led to edotco Myanmar achieving a world class colocation ratio of 2.1 tenants (customers) per tower. It has been a rewarding experience leading the negotiations across the table from lawyers and executives from diverse cultures such as Japan, Myanmar, Norway, Vietnam and the Middle East’. After nearly four years in Myanmar, Gale has recently moved into the head of legal role at edotco Group based in Kuala Lumper, where he will oversee the legal functions in Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Myanmar. Gale will remain keenly involved in all things Myanmar and the ongoing development in the Myanmar legal team.