By Kate Holton
LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - China Mobile, Vodafone and a group backed by George Soros entered the race tosecure a mobile licence in Myanmar, as the battle to operate inone of the last major untapped markets kicked off.
The Chinese and British groups, the first and second-largestoperators in the world respectively, said on Thursday they hadformed a consortium to bid for a licence in the former Burma,where the government wants to increase the number of mobileoperators from two to four.
In a separate consortium, Denis O'Brien's Digicel joinedforces with billionaire investor George Soros' Quantum StrategicPartners and Serge Pun, a well known business leader in Myanmar.
That consortium is looking at an initial project investmentof between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, a person familiar withthe situation said.
The groups made their intentions known as the deadline forpre-qualification applications closed, joining the likes ofAfrica's largest mobile phone company MTN, India's topmobile operator Bharti Airtel and Singapore's SingTel in expressing an interest.
The presence of such big names reflects the wider interestin the country, since its military stepped aside and aquasi-civilian government took over in 2011, setting off a waveof political and economic reforms.
Myanmar, where SIM cards are prohibitively expensive, hassaid it hopes to increase mobile penetration from 5-10 percentto 80 percent in three years, lifting it off the bottom of theworld's ladder of mobile use.
The country stands out as a rare opportunity ininternational telecommunications as operators battle stagnantmarkets in Europe and rapid growth but very low prices inemerging markets.
"With a comparatively young and highly literate populationof around 60 million, a GDP growth rate of 5.5 percent per annumand mobile phone penetration currently below 10 percent ...Myanmar will be an important new market for the global mobileindustry," Vodafone said.
Two licences are being tendered to authorise the holders tobuild, own and operate a mobile network on a nationwide basisfor a term of 15 years.
"The liberalisation of the telecommunications market inMyanmar will serve as an important economic stimulus for thecountry," said Soros.