8/22/22, 10:18 PM Myanmar: Freedom on the Net 2019 Country Report | Freedom House Gender-based disparities in access are generally ignored by the government. Women are still less likely than men to own a mobile phone and significantly less likely to use the internet. 26 The percentage of those aged 15 to 24 who use the internet is lower than in India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. 27 For women, barriers to owning and using a mobile phone to access the internet include affordability, literacy skills, and security and safety concerns. 28 A3 0-6 pts Does the government exercise technical or legal control over internet infrastructure for the purposes of restricting connectivity? 4/6 The government has in the past refrained from restricting connectivity, 29 and there were no public reports of restrictions on connectivity during the coverage period. 30 However, in June 2019, after the coverage period, the government cut off the internet for over a million people in parts of Rakhine State and Chin State, areas where the military has conducted crackdowns, first against the Rohingya, and more recently against the Rakhine. 31 As of October 2019, the restrictions were still in effect in some areas, affecting access for over 600,000 people. The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) retains the power to cut off the internet without oversight or safeguards, as it owns and controls much of the telecommunications infrastructure via the state-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), although private providers are gradually diversifying ownership of mobile infrastructure and the internet backbone. Myanmar has seven internet gateways and is expected to develop more in the near future to support its 70 percent annual growth in bandwidth demand, 32 including new satellite connections planned for 2019. 33 New private internet gateways are making the international connection more resilient. Myanmar has 68,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cable. 34 The first private undersea internet cable, the Myanmar-Malaysia-Thailand-International Connection (MYTHIC), was installed by Campana Group, a company based in Singapore and jointly owned by Myanmar and Thailand. It began selling wholesale to telecommunications companies in 2017. 35 Campana Group plans to build a second undersea cable, called SIGMAR, to be launched in 2020 with enough bandwidth to serve for at least 10 years. 36 Myanmar’s government plans to launch a second satellite, MyanmarSat-2, in 2020 to support the telecommunications infrastructure. 37 The legal framework has no specific regulations relating to bandwidth throttling, but many legal provisions are vague and broad, meaning that they can be misused for such purposes. 38 A draft cybersecurity law under consideration at the end of the reporting period could include restrictive provisions that affect Myanmar’s internet infrastructure (see C2). 39 A4 0-6 pts Are there legal, regulatory, or economic obstacles that restrict the diversity of service providers? 2/6 Although the government has awarded a number of telecommunications licenses, a military-owned telecommunications company has restricted the diversity of the market. Providers face a range of obstacles to effectively operate. https://freedomhouse.org/country/myanmar/freedom-net/2019 4/20