It has been widely reported that when Aung San Suu Kyi was released from her most recent period of house arrest she remarked on the proliferation of mobile phones in Burma. It does seem that the country’s days of limited mobile telephony, and the world’s most expensive phones, are fast fading into history.
I can remember a time when mobiles where almost unheard of anywhere in Southeast Asia. Those were the days of the “pager”, at least among Thailand’s upper-middle classes. The subsequent region-wide boom in mobile phone use is well recounted in this 2007 New Mandala post.
Today even in relatively remote parts of Burma mobile phones are everyday conveniences for the well-to-do. And it may be only a matter of time before the near universal use of mobiles phones, like we see in Thailand, starts to re-define Burmese society.
Readers interested in other reflections on technology and culture in Burma will find these recent posts (on reading and on photography) are followed by many useful comments.
So what should we ask about mobile telephony in Burma? Are mobile phones, as devices and conveniences, in a different category when it comes time to reflect on technology and culture? To future gaze for a moment, what will Burmese society be like when cheap mobile phone calls are available to the bulk of the country’s people?
Before you get too excited about the societal transformation that easy access to voice (and internet??) communications could bring, as always with Burma there are some dismal statistics to digest.
Mobile penetration for 2010 was estimated at just 1% of the population. This compares with 68% for Laos (wow !) and 105% for Thailand (we all knew that one). Growth for Burma’s mobile penetration is estimated at just 12% p.a. – compare with their poor neighbour Bangladesh where growth is 30% p.a.
[Source : http://www.budde.com.au
Even allowing for inaccuracy in these stats it is unlikely that Burma’s mobile penetration is at any critical mass yet and we have a very long way to go before “the near universal use of mobiles phones, like we see in Thailand”.
Your link describing the latest announcement from Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications is depressing reading. The “distribution” of handsets described amounts to perhaps 10% growth p.a. So no real change there. A state sponsored drive to market not-very-cheap handsets will not change much I think. And where are they building the base stations? Probably not in the delta area where U Blog would like to ring up and complain that his village is still without electricity or other basic services.
It is worth reflecting also on the history of politics and telecoms in Thailand. The huge sums of money involved in expanding Thailands telecoms networks in the early ’90′s became a driver for many of the machinations that were seen in the Chatchai-Suchinda era. And within a decade Thaksin had climbed to the top of the money tree using cosy “concessions” between the goverment and AIS his mobile phone company. Subsequently Thaksin visited the Burmese government whilst he was PM, although only to discuss state affairs of course, but I’m sure the Burmese took note of his way to fortune.
The reality is that the current Burmese elite view telecom development as just another way to enrich themselves whilst giving the side benefit of presenting a facade of modern technological progress.
I’m afraid we’ll have to gaze a long long way before we can see Burmese teenagers merrily facebooking each other from their internet enabled smart phones whilst hanging around the shopping malls.
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I must self-correct myself. “The “distribution” of handsets described amounts to perhaps 10% growth p.a.” Wrong. When I reread the article I realise that these numbers would push penetration rates up to about 10% this year and to perhaps 50% by 2015. That would be significant growth.
I remain very skeptical that MPT could deliver the infrastructure necessary to support this and that we are about to have a situation where “cheap mobile phone calls are available to the bulk of the country’s people”
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“The reality is that the current Burmese elite view telecom development as just another way to enrich themselves whilst giving the side benefit of presenting a facade of modern technological progress.”
Pretty damning encompassing accusation. To be fair, do agree. However this is just 1/2 of the truth.
The other half not mentioned for obvious reason being:
During the same time that Thailand embark on establishing present Telecom system, Myanmar was being wreck by the power struggle b/t the elected and this present entity.
Subsequently, suffer the worst form of useless careless punishment, sanctions, that make any chance of development moot.
Unless you are connected like Tay Za et al.
Self enrichment and control now go hand in hand. Honed to perfection, thanks to the isolation similar to N Korea.
So please, Peter S do not mention this despicable result and discouraging future without alluding to the ultimate evil that promoted this condition: The unwarranted on going SANCTION.
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Thanks Pete S.,
Very interesting points and much food for thought here.
There was a time when I would have agreed — it seemed that at least a generation was going to pass before Burma saw widespread (i.e. >50%) usage of mobile phones. But my expectation, on that point at least, has shifted pretty quickly.
The spread of relatively cheap (and surprisingly usable) Internet access to pretty much every small urban centre looks like it is being matched by vigorous efforts to roll out the commercial and technological infrastructure for mass mobile phone usage.
At the technical end, the infrastructure will be patchy, the coverage incomplete. And the potential for “roll-back” will remain, at least until mobile phones are so ubiquitous and economically important that simply “switching off” the system is intolerably risky. I stand to be corrected but roll-out now looks like the aim of the game.
As an aside, I saw somebody playing on an “IPad” clone in a small town in northern Burma earlier in the year. I did a serious double take. It was an import from China in a town without WiFi. But widespread WiFi, perhaps, isn’t all that far off either.
Burma, because of its abysmal 20th century communication infrastructure, has the chance to jump ahead to some 21st century alternatives if there is the stomach for the risk.
I’d suggest this is especially likely when there are, à la Thaksin, simply mountains of kyat to be made.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
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This is a very interesting topic. Recently the government allowed people to establish an internet connection with their GSM phone for K10,000. They closed the window after about two weeks because of the large number of requests. Apparently the connection was very fast initially and then as more people connected it slowed down, because of the lack of bandwidth.
To a limited extent you can already see “teenagers merrily facebooking each other from their internet enabled smart phones whilst hanging around the shopping malls”, but only in a few parts of Yangon. Nevertheless, these things can change quickly, and that change seems to be underway now. The increase in number of handphones over the past 12-24 months has been astonishing. The government is issuing 4 million new GSM lines this year and the price is naturally expected to drop from the current figure of $600 (which has been made higher by the recent appreciation of the kyat). Obviously that’s unaffordable for most people but the call charges are quite cheap once you get a handset. The low landline penetration will also encourage uptake, even where $600 represents a significant financial outlay for an individual or household.
Infrastructure definitely remains the wildcard here.
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I can remember a time when mobiles where almost unheard of anywhere in Southeast Asia.
That was a time when Australians were still riding kangaroo, on doles and still live in a outback !
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In the border areas is it possible to use mobile phones from the adjacent country?
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Nich,
It’s the classic capitalist dilemma that such a regime faces. You want more and more people to consume a new product for profits and prestige, but on the other hand you are handing over a powerful tool complete with camera, video, messaging and web apps that can potentially and effectively be used against you.
A good example of unintended empowerment of the masses in modern times as it were. You then either pick up the pieces or play catch up once it’s gone rampant and online, and it turns out not quite to your liking. Burma is just dipping a toe in the water as a late developer. The ruling class of course is still inexorably drawn into the universal money making process regardless of the potential risks just as it has done with satellite TV. Greed transcends everything and throws caution to the winds.
aiontay,
I’ve been told that’s exactly what they do use in the border areas.
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@#7
“In the border areas is it possible to use mobile phones from the adjacent country?”
Practically-No.
Myanmar has both CDMA and GSM system.
The limited sim card for CDMA used to cost up to $10,000 to acquire.
Still pretty costly and limited availability now around $1000.
GSM was allowed to be started by the cronies for the profit potential.
Any one can get a “rechargeable”GSM sim not unlike 999 in Thailand for initial cost of $100.
This is what driving the sale of Cell Phone.
This GSM system is really crappy even within the city and absolutely useless out in the country.
I am not as optimistic as Nic on the future of technology within Myanmar.
Knowing CONTROL and SELF serving profitability will always go hand in hand having an efficient consumer GSM system seem absolutely unlikely.
In fact the CDMA ( an archaic) system is still preferred and used by majority within for its consistence.
At the northern border areas the availability of band width from China and locally is evident.
But I will not expect that kind of availability penetrating into other places anytime.
If any hope of Myanmar becoming Thailand like in Telecom is at best a fool’s dream knowing nothing get done unless the conies and the military benefit without the potential of loosing CONTROL.\
Just think of the electriccity supply as example all the same ‘whys’ apply to any technology in Myanmar.
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Can get Thai cell phone coverage in Tachilek, but runs out pretty quickly on the road to Kengtung.
However, in Kengtung you can get a Chinese phone number through a fixed line connection taken somewhere from the Chinese border (60 odd km away). Very cheap and clear way to call from overseas – less than 2 cents per minute.
On another note, does anybody know the fate of the Kengtung Standing Buddha on Loi Jom Sak overlooking the lake? I have heard it fell down following the March earthquake (which I imagine would please the locals no small amount – I’m not being ironic here).
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Thanks for all of these useful comments:
To go a bit further in answering aiontay’s question — certainly in any Burmese town directly adjacent to a border the use of foreign phones is widespread. But what I find more intriguing is the use of foreign telephone infrastructure much further from the national frontiers. KGG’s comment picks up an important part of this story.
For what it’s worth, I know people who work in border areas, and beyond, who will carry a range of phones, say 3 or 4, for different purposes and tied in to different networks.
The technical specifications of the phones are often beyond me. I have, however, seen Chinese mobiles, with over-sized antenna, a long way from the border. I think some are used as genuine mobiles while others, as best I can discern, may be more akin to “roaming” fixed line phones (perhaps tied to the kinds of fixed line connections that KGG mentions?). Exactly how that works I’m not sure but it does seem to give a great deal of extra range and flexibility for those with the money to side-step, or augment, Burma’s mobile phone system.
Readers with greater knowledge of the issue are, as ever, very welcome to chime in.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
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Nich, every now and then word will go around that the govt. are not happy with the Chinese line and people unhook their phones for a while. Gradually the pressure drops and the phones are hooked back up.
Certainly better than 10 years ago when you would make a call to somebody who could afford a blackmarket landline, ask for the person you want to talk to, then hear a cacophony of screaming over fences and down streets to find said person. All at $1.50 a minute.
Another very useful development is the ability to use the webcam and actually see the person you are talking to for free.
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@#5
Tom
You must be talking about the popular and affordable satellite based “Skynet® digital bundle”.
It was available for a very short while with ‘fast internet’ within the package.
Because of the popularity of this service, was terminated by the power that be (PTB) rather quickly.
Now only available without the internet.
Obviously alarmed by the potentials that might negatively impact there hold/control.
Nic
An internet system within Myanmar akin to China is not unimaginable.
Skynet® is licensed from China operated by a Chinese.
Some how if the Chinese see the need for an up to date (satellite) internet system, to help with their pillaging of Myanmar, it will be hard for the PTB not to acquiesce.
Words has it the Military is setting up an up to date Telecom system à la Américaîn for its Myawaddy TV.
You can now imagine why and how SANCTION has set and condemned Myanmar from any potential for changes through conventional consumer technology and other economic activities.
As for the other side of this sanction coin, is the plight of the most vulnerable, especially in the delta area.
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Spoke to relatives on Skype, one of them a patient, in a hospital room recently. Another relative visiting from England hooked it up on the patient’s mobile phone. They were fascinated by the webcam even though they couldn’t get a good video signal at their end.
Our resident anti-sanctions crusader can have his say. Did he forget how tech inputs got to China and the rest? ‘Conventional consumer technology and other economic activities’ can only happen when the beast sees the light and decides to change its nature. Mañana?
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“Did he forget how tech inputs got to China and the rest? ”
Violating every patent rights aka Stealing b/f, now blatantly branding same stolen tech as China own.
Similar gunny sacks of coffee beans from Maymyo already labeled “Product of China” even b/f being loaded on to the trucks to Yunan. The tip of the iceberg result of all sanction.
“when the beast sees the light and decides to change its nature.”
Luke 6:42
Or have you any evidence of sanction effecting any government behavior for the betterment of it citizenry?
Even EU, and Australia now is quasi revising its absolute policy quietly.
How so?
Supporting education, aids through UNICEF that dole it out to CBOs that have Myanmar citizenry heads above water all theses years.
You can figure out why it is quasi old man.
Why not just get rid of the middle wasteful bureaucracy?
Then
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Arrow shirts originating from Burma?
Total and Unocal/Chevron happily exempt, and the locals, our ethnic brethren, benefiting in the form of land confiscation and forced labor? Pretty conventional economic activities I’d imagine.
It ain’t the ‘wasteful middle bureaucracy’ ‘old man’. Burma is not where you are living. It’s the military yoke you want to get rid of.
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SMS or text messaging is unencrypted and can be easily intercepted by the authorities. ‘They’ love the increase in mobile telephony as it increases their ability to oppress.
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Here in New Zealand the last Labour Govt was criticised heavily for allowing a Government-owned engineering company Kordia to build cellphone towers in Burma (see article here).
Helen Clark, the Prime Minister at the time, was quoted as saying:
“Quite frankly I think that’s probably an aid to democracy in Myanmar, not a step backwards, because one of the ways of getting news out to the world and photos and images out to the world is precisely through that technology.”
At the time I thought she had it the wrong way round. It was my impression that the Burma govt were extending the network to enable the military and USDA to communicate more effectively in the build-up to the election so that democracy could be thwarted.
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Last Thursday I was eating at one of my favorite Asian places, and found out one of the new sushi chefs is Kachin/Chinese from Myitkyina. I was back there eating tonight, so I asked him how common cell phones were in Myitkyina. He asked if I meant Burmese or Chinese and I said either one. He said everybody, even the Burmese soldiers had Chinese cell phones.
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Now they have in Yangon Chinese handsets with Skype and web access but no camera, very good audio I gather. Can the authorities readily acquire the technology to monitor and police or disable Skype effectively ? They were trying to ban it in cyber cafes only recently as an unwelcome competition to their very expensive international calls. Interesting development.
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Thanks Moe Aung,
This is intriguing. If anyone has further details on these handsets then I’m sure the New Mandala readers following this issue will be excited to learn more. That somebody has decided to start seriously leap-frogging the available technology, by looking to mobile Internet telephony, is not so surprising. But that it is happening in 2011, when so much else is still up for grabs, is interesting indeed.
Best wishes to all,
Nich
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A couple of Saturdays ago I went out to Shawnee with a Kachin student attending the University of Oklahoma to a stomp dance the Shawnee Indian Education program was putting on (for those unfamiliar with stomp dances, this is adequate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomp_dance ). We were about to leave when he got a phone call. He laughed and said it was a Chinese number. He answered it and afterward told me that even though the number was Chinese, it was actually from a friend of his in Myitkyina. Apparently everybody in there has a Chinese cell phone. His friend was calling to tell him that the electricity in Myitkyina was back on.
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