Mobiles in Burma (Myanmar)Cross-Border Movement Strategies

Under Authoritarian Regimes

1Wednesday, October 15, 2008

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES CREATING OPPORTUNITIESOVERCOMING OBSTACLES CREATING OPPORTUNITIES

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This is Burma

Population: 60 million

Those in Exile: 4 million

Less than 1% mobile phone market penetration

from USD0.75 in 2004 and USD0.95–1.50 in

2003),8 which are said to be present in five cities

but planned to reach 324 townships within three

years.9 Connection speeds are slow, however, as

broadband is available primarily to government

and businesses and used mostly for Internet

telephony via Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP),

though the government pledged to bring ADSL to

every township by the end of 2006.10 There are

only two Internet service providers (ISPs) allowed

in Myanmar: state-owned telecom Myanmar

Posts and Telecom (MPT), which is the only

source of new Internet services,11 and Myanmar

Teleport (MMT, formerly Bagan Cybertech), which

is reportedly the infrastructure arm of Myanmar’s

Internet system and responsible for blocking

content. In September 2005 the Ahaed Co.

of Myanmar and the Canadian ICT company

Teleglobe reportedly signed a memorandum

of understanding to establish a private ISP.12

Reliability is also an issue: in May 2006 the entire

country was disconnected for four days because

of alleged damage to an undersea cable.13

Legal and regulatory frameworks

Myanmar heavily regulates online access and

content via legal, regulatory, and economic con-

straints. As in other areas, however, the state’s

policies are difficult to assess because they are

rarely published or explained.

Network-ready computers must be regis-

tered (for a fee) with the MPT; failure to do so

can result in fines and prison sentences of seven

to fifteen years.14 Sharing registered Internet

connections is also punishable by revocation of

access and presumably similar “legal action.”15

Broad laws and regulations confer power upon

the SPDC, which is also involved in all judicial

appointments,16 to punish citizens harshly for any

activity deemed detrimental to national interests

or security. Regulations issued in 2000 subjected

online content to the same kind of strict filtering

that the Press Scrutiny and Registration Division

carries out (despite print media being almost

exclusively state owned):17 users must obtain

MPT permission before creating Web pages, and

they cannot post anything “detrimental” to the

government or simply related to politics. The MPT

can “amend and change regulations on the use

of the Internet without prior notice.”18

Costs indeed limit access significantly: even

households that can afford a PC and long-

distance connection fees outside the capital

Yangon (Rangoon) and Mandalay cannot pay

KEY INDICATORS

worst best

GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2000 international $) ........ 1,446 3.50

Life expectancy at birth (years) ............................................. 61 4.19

Literacy rate (% of people age 15+) ..................................... 90 6.00

Human development index (out of 177) ............................... 130 3.52

Rule of law (out of 208) ...................................................... 202 1.87

Voice and accountability (out of 208) .................................. 208 0.69

Digital opportunity index (out of 180) .................................. 176 1.36

Internet users (% of population) ........................................... 0.1 3.07

Source (by indicator): IMF 2006; World Bank 2006a, 2006a; UNDP 2006; World Bank 2006c, 2006c; ITU 2006, 2004

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

OpenNet Initiative, Internet Filtering in Burma in 2005: A Country Study, at http://opennet.net/studies/burma/.

2Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Saffron RevolutionMobile phones were used by monks and other citizen journalists to send information to the outside world.

3Wednesday, October 15, 2008

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led democratic movement was met with a brutal crackdown in which 3,000 Burmese were killed.6

However, in the recent events of 2007, a relatively small group of Burmese citizens achieved a

disproportionate impact on the global awareness and understanding of this current crisis, despite

operating in a very limited online space where information is severely controlled. As a result, the

extraordinary applications of technology over the past few months have quickly become a target

for expanded government surveillance,7 so that future protests may take place in a much more

constrained context.

Internet in Burma

“People from Burma are always asking for information as well as requesting for help and assistance

from [the] outside world but very little of their voices reach the world and most are lost in the endless

state of the government vacuum.” — Burmese blogger

By the time the protests began, the SPDC had already established one of the world’s most restrictive

systems of information control, and had been extending its reach into the Internet despite less than

1 percent of the population having online access.8 ONI testing conducted in late 2006 demonstrated

that the two Burmese Internet service providers (ISPs), Myanmar Posts and Telecom (MPT) and

BaganNet/Myanmar Teleport (formerly Bagan Cybertech), filtered extensively. They focused

overwhelmingly on independent media, political reform, and human rights sites relating to domestic

6 Andrew Buncombe, "Burma: Inside the saffron revolution", The Independent, Sep. 27, 2007, http://news.inde-

pendent.co.uk/world/asia/article3001620.ece; "Burma (Myanmar)", Human Rights Watch World Report (1989),

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3001620.ece.7 According to Mizzima News, the state-owned ISP Myanmar Posts and Telecom will be taken over by the

Ministry of Defence and Communications in the near future. Mizzima News, “Defence likely to take over MPT,”

October 12, 2007, http://www.mizzima.com/MizzimaNews/News/2007/Oct/51-Oct-2007.html. 8 International Telecommunication Union, ICT Statistics, http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/ict/index.html.

Figure 1. Timeline of Events,

Aug. 19, 2007 - Oct. 13, 2007

Saffron RevolutionWill governments learn that silencing mobiles and the internet are a necessary step in any crackdown?

Text

OpenNet Initiative, Pulling the Plug: A Technical Review of the Internet Shutdown in Burma, at http://opennet.net/research/bulletins/013.

4Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Burma’s Borders

In Burma the cost of a GSM sim card is 2.5 million kyat. This equals approximately $2000 (17,000 rand) on the black market conversion rate. At the official rate this is approximately $393,400 (3,351,324 rand).

Bangladesh

India (Delhi)

Thailand

China (Yunnan)

South Africa

Dollars Local Currency Rand

4.18 250 31.39

7.77 300 54.46

6.84 200 50.14

14.6 100 124.4

23.48 200 200

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How information travelsActions are recorded with mobile phones, uploaded to flash drives, taken across borders, uploaded to servers, sent to trusted contacts.

Is there a better way?

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Impact of Technology

In Thailand, internet access is frequent. There, we found a correlation between access to internet and self-identification as an activist

Since then, internet access has grown, including affordable and reliable GPRS on mobiles

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Problem Solution .Regional instability

World’s longest running civil war

Rampant use of child soldiers

Over 3.5 million internally displaced persons and refugees

Severe censorship

Cross-border communication

Networking among traditionally divided groups

Providing 21st century education

Connecting refugees with their resettled communities

Freedom of information

Digital Democracy

8Wednesday, October 15, 2008