Myanmar Internet turned off

Thu Oct 4 02:55:41 UTC 2007

Here is my BGP analysis, based on the data archived as part of

http://www.multicasttech.com/status/

I know of only one fiber landing station in  Burma, in Pyapon with  
service from  SEA-ME-WE 3 :
http://www.sintelsat.com/fibernetworks/SEAMEWE3.html . There has been  
discussion in Bangladesh with installing fiber to link their landing  
station in Cox's Bazar with Pyapon, but I don't think that that is  
there yet. I believe that there is also only one satellite landing  
station.

Here is some technical info. AFAIK there are 2 autonomous systems in  
Burma :

   9988          MPT-AP                          [DS72-AP]             
{43, Boaung, Yangon, Myanma, MM} Myanma Post and Telecommunication
   18399         BAGAN-TRANSIT-AS                [KS220-AP]            
{Union of Myanamr, MM}        Bagan Cybertech IDC & Teleport  
International Transit

I dump and archive all BGP data here every 6 hours, so I can go back  
into the past.

Before September 27, 2007, these ASN reached me via the following AS  
paths

  AS   9988  MPT-AP              as path   174  3491  9304  9988
  AS  18399  BAGAN-TRANSIT-AS    as path   174  2914  9988 18399

That is to say

Cogent <-> CAIS <-> Hutchison Telecom (HK) <-> MPT-AP
Cogent <-> CAIS <-> MPT-AP <-> BAGAN-TRANSIT-AS

(Note that CAIS has more than one autonomous system number.)

Both of these BGP announcements were shut off between

Sep_27_18:07:00_EDT_2007

and

Sep_28_00:07:00_EDT_2007

and have mostly remained off since.

At 0600  EDT for 2 of the days since, there has been different  
announcement from 18399

AS  18399  BAGAN-TRANSIT-AS     as path   174  3549  9731 18399

that is

Cogent <-> Global Crossing <-> STTP-AS-SG-AP <-> BAGAN-TRANSIT-AS

where STTP-AS-SG-AP is ST Teleport Pte Ltd - Multihomed and Transit  
AS - Internet via Satellite Service Provider,
2B/2C Ayer Rajah Crescent, Singapore 139937.

I saw these on

Sep_28_06:07:00_EDT_2007
Oct_1_06:07:00_EDT_2007

and not since. I would guess this was a satellite link.

On

Oct_1_18:07:00_EDT_2007 only I saw

AS   9988  MPT-AP       as path   174  3491  9304  9988

which is to say the original path.

Given the 6 hour sampling, I have to assume that there have been  
other short term re-appearances of routes to Burma.
Whether this is due to internal struggles, accidents, or urgent needs  
for data transfer I cannot say.

Regards
Marshall

On Oct 3, 2007, at 9:56 PM, Steve Gibbard wrote:

>
> There have been several news stories today about Myanmar's  
> government turning off the country's Internet connectivity to  
> suppress news coming out of the country (for instance: http:// 
> www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/world/asia/04info.html?ref=world). Doing  
> some poking at it earlier today, here's what I found:
>
> The .MM top level domain has disappeared.  It's served by three name
> servers:
> ;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
> mm.                     172800  IN      NS      NS-MM.RIPE.NET.
> mm.                     172800  IN      NS      NS.NET.mm.
> mm.                     172800  IN      NS      NS0.MPT.NET.mm.
>
> ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
> NS.NET.mm.              172800  IN      A       202.153.125.17
> NS0.MPT.NET.mm.         172800  IN      A       203.81.64.20
> NS-MM.RIPE.NET.         172800  IN      A       193.0.12.151
>
> ns0.mpt.net.mm is in Myanmar, part of the network of Myanma Post &  
> Telecommunication.  It's unreachable.
>
> ns.net.mm is in address space registered to Powerbase DataCenter  
> Services (HK) Ltd. in Hong Kong.  It's also unreachable, which  
> makes it difficult to confirm whether its physical location matches  
> its registered location. It may also be in Myanmar.
>
> ns-mm.ripe.net is in Amsterdam.  It's reachable, but is responding  
> to all queries with a SERVFAIL response.  Presumably, this means it  
> hasn't been able to get updates from a master server for the .MM  
> domain for long enough that its data has expired.
>
> Looking at the rest of Myanmar's connectivity to the outside world,  
> Myanma Post & Telecommunication has two IP address blocks  
> registered to it: 203.81.64.0/19 and 203.81.160.0/20.  Both of  
> those blocks were in the global Internet routing table on September  
> 27, but but have not been since September 28 (according to daily  
> snapshots of route-views data).  It's pretty safe to say that  
> Myanma Post & Telecommunication has completely turned off its  
> connection to the outside world.  This is no doubt following the  
> example set by the King of Nepal during the coup there a couple  
> years ago.
>
> The New York Times story says there are two ISPs in Myanmar.   
> Myanma Post & Telecommunication is the only one with IP addresses  
> registered to a mailing address within the country, so I'm not sure  
> who the other one is, or what its status is.
>
> -Steve