Myanmar internet - something to think about if you're having a bad day

Wed Apr 28 17:48:14 UTC 2021

It should be noted that Telenor has been one of the nationwide license
holders for 3GPP cellular bands in Pakistan for a long time, and has
encountered the same issues with regional network shutdowns, and government
orders to block certain netblocks or services.

Not to the same extent as what's going on right now in Myanmar, but
absolutely it meets the definition of what a (western European, North
American) person would consider to be unconscionable and unwarranted
government Internet censorship and interference with telecoms.

They've shown no signs of pulling out of Pakistan or making operational
changes as a result of this, over the past ten years. My personal opinion
is that Telenor (PK) has weighed the risks, and judged that they possess
neither the political capital, influence or leverage to ignore the
government's occasional Internet shutdown orders.

"Westerners" might be surprised to learn the extent that some of the major
international/developing-nation specialist 3GPP carriers seem to be quite
fine with operating in non-democratic regimes and bending their telecom's
operational policies to suit local laws. In particular I'm thinking of the
above Telenor example, but also MTN in many nations in Africa, Orange, and
Airtel, in their operations in many different nations.

Then on the other hand you have telecom entities which originate from
highly censored political systems, one of the other 3GPP band operators in
Pakistan (Zong) is owned by a Chinese domestic telecom company.

On Mon, Apr 26, 2021 at 11:51 PM Bjørn Mork <bjorn at mork.no> wrote:

> scott <surfer at mauigateway.com> writes:
>
> > Telenor and Ooredoo, it's time to do the right thing.
>
> Wrt Telenor, please see the info posted at
>
> https://www.telenor.com/sustainability/responsible-business/human-rights/mitigate/human-rights-in-myanmar/directives-from-authorities-in-myanmar-february-2021/
>
>
> Bjørn
>
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