STATE-OWNED telecommunications company, Myanma Post and Telecommunications (MPT) plans to connect Yangon with Mandalay soon with fibre optic cables at the cost of K1 billion, a company spokesperson said last week.

He said that the project should increase internet speeds and benefit the emergence of private internet service sub-providers. The cable will run from Yangon, through Nay Pyi Taw to Mandalay along the railway line.

It will run alongside the current cable, which was installed last year but was only intended for telephone use.

“The new cable is intended to be used for the internet,” adding that it should be finished by the end of April.

The cable will have a bandwidth capacity of 10 Gigabits (Gb) and will connect to the trans-national cable that links China, Thailand and Myanmar.