On August 10, 2026, the Lao Official Gazette published the Decision on the Expansion of the Telecommunications Network to Rural and Remote Areas, No. 1887/MOTC. Issued by the Ministry of Technology and Communications (MOTC), the Decision creates a legal framework to support the Government’s digital transformation agenda. Its goal: build telecom infrastructure in places where it’s still missing or insufficient.
The Decision’s stated goals center on rural and remote areas: eliminating digital illiteracy, reducing poverty, and supporting the digital economy, education, and public health, but it goes further and ties network expansion to national defense and public security, covering what it calls “village areas related to national defense and public security activities.”
To finance this expansion, the Decision relies on what it defines as “State funding,” a term covering the State budget, the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Development Fund (DTTDF), contributions from society, and official assistance funds (Article 3(1)).
That said, the private sector has an important role too. Telecom operators can fund up to 100% of a project on their own, or co-invest alongside the Government or the DTTDF, each covering part of the cost. In exchange, investors may receive specific incentives.
This article covers selected highlights of the Decision, not a full review.
I. Key Terms and Authorities in Charge
A. Key Terms
The Decision provides definitions of the key terms that shape the scope and the objectives it intends to serve (Article 3).
Rural and remote areas (ເຂດຊົນນະບົດ ແລະ ຫ່າງໄກສອກຫຼືກ) are defined as follows:
Rural and remote areas means areas where economic conditions, geographical conditions and infrastructure systems present difficulties and are not conducive to telecommunications service providers expanding their networks, including, in particular, areas without electricity and/or areas without accessible roads.
Village areas related to national defense and public security activities (ເຂດບ້ານທີ່ຕິດພັນກັບວຽກງານ ປ້ອງກັນຊາດ-ປ້ອງກັນຄວາມສະຫງົບ) is also an important term, since the Decision also aims to expand telecom infrastructure in the interest of national defense and public security:
Strategic areas for national defense and public security, border areas, and geographical areas consisting of mountains and forests, plateaus, caves, streams and rivers that have military significance and that must be strictly reserved for use in national defense and public security activities.
The expression Telecommunications network expansion plan (ແຜນການຂະຫຍາຍເຄືອຂ່າຍໂທລະຄົມມະນາຄົມ) is defined as follows:
Telecommunications network expansion plan means a plan determined by the Ministry of Technology and Communications, or pursuant to a decision of the Government from time to time, for the expansion of telecommunications networks to rural and remote areas or areas without telecommunications signals.
Based on the Decision’s content, this “plan” appears to be an internal, Ministry-level decision (sometimes made together with the Government), updated from time to time. The Decision does not point to any separate, published plan that would set out, area by area, where and when expansion will happen. Instead, as discussed below, a number of factors and opportunities will shape where networks actually get built.
B. Key Authorities in Charge
The Decision gives the picture of who is in charge of the network’s expansion.
Ministry of Technology and Communications
This is the central, dominant actor throughout the Decision, holding overall, centralized management and inspection power over the network’s expansion. Some of its powers include the following:
- Setting priority areas (Article 6). Areas that become “priority areas” are decided based on Party policy and the development plans of the technology and communications administration, updated from time to time. The final word rests with the MOTC.
- Grading hardship levels (ລະດັບຄວາມຫຍຸ້ງຍາກ) of particular areas (Article 7).
- Considering expansion against both priority and hardship criteria (Article 8).
- Deciding plan inclusion (Article 9). When a private company proposes an area for network expansion, it’s ultimately the Ministry that decides whether to accept that area into the expansion plan.
- Determining the expansion plan itself, generally on its own initiative, though in some cases pursuant to a government decision, updated from time to time (Article 3(3)).
- Selecting providers via bidding, or directly in urgent/no-bidder cases, although the latter requires Government approval (Article 14).
- Approving offset arrangements for 100%-upfront investors’ Fund contribution obligations (Article 13), which is one of the incentives that may be granted to private investors, as discussed below.
Lao Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (LTRA)(ອົງການດັດສົມໂທລະຄົມມະນາຄົມ)
Operationally, the LTRA is the MOTC’s delegated implementing body (Article 23). Some of its powers include (Article 24):
- Monitoring/inspecting nationwide implementation
- Disseminating policy, law, and plans down to provincial departments
- Submitting expansion plans to Ministry leadership for approval “from time to time”
- Summarizing/reporting results to Ministry leadership
- Submitting project proposals and certifying budget disbursement plans, forwarding these to the Government or the Fund’s Office for approval and payment
Fund Management Board (ກອງທຶນພັດທະນາໂທລະຄົມມະນາຄົມ ແລະ ການຫັນເປັນດີຈີຕອນ)
Worth including here, even though the Decision mentions the Fund Management Board only once (Article 13), without describing it. The Board’s structure and powers are actually set out in a separate instrument, Decree on the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Development Fund No.278/GOV (ດຳລັດ ວ່າດ້ວຍ ກອງທຶນພັດທະນາໂທລະຄົມມະນາຄົມ ແລະ ການຫັນເປັນດີຈີຕອນ) (Decree 278).
The Board’s role matters because, under the Decision, where private investment is paired with Government budget or the DTTDF, the Board must approve the co-funded project before it can move forward (Article 13). This makes Board approval a distinct gate, separate from the MOTC’s plan-inclusion decision, and one that sits within the Fund’s own governance structure rather than the Decision’s. The Board is appointed by the Prime Minister for a five-year term, on the proposal of the Minister of Technology and Communications, and is chaired by the Minister himself, with the Vice Minister of Finance and a Vice Minister of Technology and Communications serving as Vice-Chairs. Its remaining members are drawn from government ministries and technology-related agencies.
(Note: while the Lao title, read literally, would place “Telecommunications” before “Digital Transformation,” Article 2 of the Decree itself assigns the Fund this English name and word order, which this article follows throughout).
Government
The Government sits above the Ministry, and its involvement in the Decision is limited to specific situations. For instance, under Article 3(3), the expansion plan may be determined by the Government itself rather than the Ministry alone, though in practice this appears to remain the Ministry’s role. Also, the Ministry’s power to bypass bidding and directly select a provider in urgent or no-bidder cases (Article 14) requires prior Government approval.
Provincial and Local Authorities
- Departments of Technology and Communications (ພະແນກ ເຕັກໂນໂລຊີ ແລະ ການສື່ສານ)
They carry out technical and administrative work, at the provincial level (or within the capital). They monitor and inspect implementation within their own territory, disseminate policy and regulations to local telecom branches and communities, and collect statistical data on villages that remain without signal or need service quality improvements, proposing these upward for inclusion in the expansion plan.
- Local Administration Authority (ອົງການປົກຄອງທ້ອງຖິ່ນ)
It is the country’s local governance structure. At the Capital/provincial level, the Administrative Committee is a broad-mandate governing body responsible for political, economic, security, and social administration within the province or capital it governs. Under the Decision (Article 9) its Chairman (ປະທານປົກຄອງ) issues the formal decision certifying that a privately-proposed area qualifies as a priority area (Article 6), before the matter is forwarded to the Ministry of Technology and Communications for inclusion in the network expansion plan.
C. Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Development Fund (ກອງທຶນພັດທະນາໂທລະຄົມມະນາຄົມ ແລະ ການຫັນເປັນດີຈີຕອນ) (DTTDF)
The Decision refers to the DTTDF, managed by the Fund Management Board mentioned above. The Fund’s legal basis lies primarily in the Law on Telecommunications (2021) (Articles 39-41), with Decree 278 setting out the operational details, including its sources of funding (Article 5):
- Contributions from the State budget;
- One percent (1%) of business revenue, excluding indirect taxes, namely excise tax and value-added tax, from telecommunications and internet business operators, postal business operators, and digital business operators;
- Five percent (5%) of revenue from the provision of product and service activities;
- Revenue from the management of the Fund;
- Thirty percent (30%) of fines imposed on persons violating laws and regulations relating to technology and communications activities;
- Revenue from telecommunications and internet security fees;
- Assistance and contributions from domestic and foreign individuals, legal entities and organizations; and
- Other lawful sources of revenue.
Decree 278 also sets out the Fund’s purposes (Article 6), which go well beyond rural network expansion: they include digital transformation of state administration, the national digital platform, digital security, human resource development, and broader digital economy support. Rural and remote telecom infrastructure, the focus of the Decision, is only one of several purposes the Fund is meant to serve.
II. Investment and Incentives
A. Technologies Covered
The Decision names the technologies covered by the network expansion (Article 10):
- Mobile communication networks
- Satellite communication networks
- Optical fiber networks
- Microwave communication links
That said, the Decision also allows “other technologies appropriate to actual conditions” to be considered. Rather than a closed list, it leaves room for new technologies to be used later, subject to the decision of the MOTC and the Government.
B. Ways to Fund the Expansion
The Decision sets out several ways to fund network expansion projects (Article 12):
- Fully by the Government or the DTTDF;
- Fully by a private telecom operator;
- Co-financed, with the private operator contributing at least 70%, 50%, or 30% of the project’s capital, and the Government or the Fund covering the rest.
C. How Investors Are Selected
Projects are generally awarded through a bidding process, following applicable laws and regulations. The MOTC selects the winning provider, favoring the proposal that offers the greatest benefit to the State. In some cases, the Ministry may bypass bidding and select a provider directly or procure directly itself. This applies to urgent projects tied to national security, rural development, or poverty alleviation; projects in areas with especially difficult infrastructure conditions; or cases where no operator shows interest in bidding. Direct selection always requires Government approval (Article 14).
D. Incentives for Private Investors: Exclusive Period Rights and Others
To encourage private investment, the Decision grants telecom operators a period of exclusive service provision in the area they expand into (Article 13). The length of this exclusivity depends on how much of the project’s capital the operator finances:
- 15 years for 100%;
- 13 years for at least 70%;
- 10 years for at least 50%;
- 8 years for at least 30%.
In short, the greater the operator’s share of the project’s capital, the longer it can operate exclusively in that area.
Once an operator’s exclusivity period ends, it must open its infrastructure to other providers, allowing them to connect or offer services in the same area.
Operators that pay their full investment upfront also get priority to offset that amount against their standing obligation tp contribute to the DTTDF. Additional incentives, such as tax benefits, may also apply under other laws, including the Law on Investment Promotion (2024), which offers tax holidays, among other benefits.
III. Selection of Geographic Areas for Network Expansion
A. Priority and Hardship Criteria
The Decision doesn’t fully explain how geographical areas are chosen, beyond a general framework. It provides that the MOTC “shall determine the priority of rural and remote areas for the expansion of telecommunications networks based on the policies of the Party and the development plans of the technology and communications sector from time to time” (Article 6), without detailing what those policies actually are, and signaling that they may change over time.
That said, the Decision does set out four categories of priority areas (Article 6):
- Villages tied to national defense and public security;
- Target villages for rural development and poverty alleviation;
- Areas not located along national highways;
- Other rural, remote, or border areas without telecommunications signals.
An Ordinance on National Defense Strategic Zones (ລັດຖະບັນຍັດ ວ່າດ້ວຍເຂດຍຸດທະສາດປ້ອງກັນຊາດ), published more recently and after the Decision, may offer a useful reference point for understanding the geographic scope of the “national defense” category, though the two instruments do not cross-reference one another. Readers interested in this angle may want to look into it further. The relevance of said Ordinance remains to be confirmed.
Alongside priority, the Decision also grades areas by hardship level, based on electricity and road access (Article 7):
- No electricity and no accessible roads;
- No electricity, but accessible roads are available;
- Electricity is available, but there are no accessible roads;
- Electricity and accessible roads are available.
The MOTC weighs both priority and hardship level together when deciding where expansion should happen (Article 8).
B. Proposing an Area for Expansion
The Decision also lets legal entities and organizations propose specific rural or remote areas for network expansion, in line with the priority criteria above (Article 9).
To do so, a proposal is submitted to the relevant provincial Department of Technology and Communications, which reviews it and forwards it to the Chairman of the Capital, or Provincial, Administrative Committee (ປະທານປົກຄອງ ນະຄອນຫຼວງ, ແຂວງ). The Chairman issues a decision confirming that the area qualifies as a priority area (for example, a village tied to national defense, or one targeted for rural development and poverty alleviation), before the proposal is sent to the MOTC for consideration and, if accepted, inclusion in the telecommunications network expansion plan for rural and remote areas.
C. What Being in the Expansion Plan Actually Means
Getting an area into the plan is not the same as securing the right to build there. The Decision doesn’t set out a clear link between a successful proposal and what happens next. Once an area is included in the plan, there’s no fixed timeline for when, or whether, it will actually be opened for development. And when it is, the general bidding process still applies (Article 14): the entity that originally proposed and secured priority status for an area has no guaranteed right to be the one selected to build it. The Decision is silent on this.
Conclusion
The Decision gives Laos a clearer legal basis for expanding telecom access to rural and remote areas, and it does more than most comparable rules: it names specific investment tiers, ties concrete incentives to them, and spells out a selection process. For private operators, that’s a concrete, if incomplete, roadmap.
But it stops short of being a full roadmap. The Decision leaves the actual sequencing of expansion (which areas, and when) to the MOTC’s discretion, “from time to time,” without a published plan or timeline to point to. And even a well-prepared proposal only gets an area into consideration; it does not guarantee that the proposing party will be the one selected to build there. Investors weighing whether to engage with this framework should keep both points in mind: the incentives are specific and real, while the practical steps from identifying an opportunity to actually winning it may still be refined as implementation unfolds.
Disclaimer
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For legal assistance or advice regarding law matters in Laos, readers must contact a qualified Lao lawyer.
Translation Note
This article is based on an independent reading of the official Lao text of the regulation. While every effort has been made to ensure accurate and contextually appropriate terminology, some terms may be subject to refinement as legal usage and official interpretations evolve. If readers have a more accurate translation supported by reliable sources, I would be happy to read it. Please feel free to share in the comments or via private message. This is not an official translation.