Ooredoo and Telenor came out on top of a pool of nine other shortlisted bidders including Singapore Telecommunications, KDDI Corp,  Digicel, Axiata, Bharti Airtel, MTN, Vietnam's Viettel, Orange and Millicom International Cellular.

The announcement was made at 5pm local time Thursday, following much confusion among political sources and media outlets. At one point it was thought a motion put forward in the Lower House on Wednesday would delay the announcement until the upcoming telecommunications law was passed.

Despite this, Set Aung, who heads the Telecommunications Operator Tender Evaluation and Selection Committee (TOTSC), told Reuters earlier that the announcement would go ahead, as there was “no reason to postpone it.”

Following their successful bids, Ooredoo and Telenor must follow through on what will be the long and complicated process of upgrading Myanmar’s telecommunication infrastructure. They must also now make plans to follow through on the commitments they made during the bidding process.

Each company is expected to spend billions on the infrastructure, a big ask considering that a final Telecommunications Law hasn’t even been established. Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT) will be transformed into a new regulator by 2015, according to the Myanmar Government.

Norway's Telenor was confident before the bid, with India’s Economic Times saying that the company had started recruiting two days before the bid announcement was even due.

Ooredoo has committed to spending US$15 billion in Myanmar as part of its bid, according to a senior company executive who spoke on the matter earlier this month. Their plan includes rolling out a 3G data network that will reach 90 percent of the country.

The Myanmar government has expressed a wish to have 80 percent mobile coverage by 2016; currently it is sitting on an estimated 9 percent, according to the Asian Development Bank. These small percentages put it below North Korea and Cuba in terms of coverage; however it is estimated that the market will grow fast following the country’s new political attitude to foreign investment.

One area that can expect improvement is the availability of SIM cards. Currently the telecommunications market is dominated by Myanmar’s MPT, whose permanent SIM cards cost around 250 000 kyat, which is close to $250, a stark contrast to neighboring Thailand where the cards are free. This price is out of the range for most Myanmar buyers, though it’s thought that following the introduction of international companies the cards will drop drastically in price.

Now that Telenor and Ooredoo have been named, Myanmar will await comprehensive plans from the two companies on the next step forward.