mobiles in burma 2008
TRANSCRIPT
Mobiles in Burma (Myanmar)Cross-Border Movement Strategies
Under Authoritarian Regimes
1Wednesday, October 15, 2008
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES CREATING OPPORTUNITIESOVERCOMING OBSTACLES CREATING OPPORTUNITIES
5
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
5Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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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OVERCOMING OBSTACLES CREATING OPPORTUNITIESOVERCOMING OBSTACLES CREATING OPPORTUNITIES
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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
7Wednesday, October 15, 2008
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