Following the purchase of a phone, prepaid calling plan, data SIM, and voice/text service, data activation could be purchased. Activating the data service cost about $17. This fee acts as credit that can be topped off, when credit expires.55 Data is charged by the minute with rates that vary between 2 to 3 kyat per min. The variance in rates is represented by two different quotes, which appear fairly standard.56 As a point of reference, after converting Myanmar kyat to USD, $1 buys approximately 280 minutes of data usage. In another example of Myanmar’s rapidly changing ICT environment, store employees reported that the government plans to change the per-minute data charge in the near future. In 2013, the government will begin charging per Kilobit; from 2 kyat per minute to 2 kyat per 100 Kilobits of data. Pirated Apps After all application forms and fees were signed and paid, the store employee asked if the delegation would like additional mobile applications on top of those preinstalled on the Android smartphone. They offer to side-load any of the thousands, more than 10 Gigabytes, of pirated Android apps to customers. The store’s ready-to-load apps were kept on a desktop computer and transferred from the desktop computer to the delegation’s new smartphone.57 The delegation reviewed the app titles, which were all found to be generic and unfamiliar.58 After the delegation agreed, the employee gained administrative access to the Android device installing the chosen apps. The store employees also maintained an extensive collection of Android exploits to bypass the software and hardware restrictions common to Android smartphones.59 55 Note, because we did not try, the delegation was not able to confirm this. See Htoo Aung, “Faster internet on trial: deputy minister,” The Myanmar Times, Aug. 27, 2012, http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/business/technology/466-faster-Internet-on-trial-deputy-minister.html. 57 See Appendix I, Photo 10 58 A short random list of titles included: Battery Indicator, Virus removal, Download possibilities, Camcard, Blacklist, GOthemes, GOlauncher, and GOstore. 59 See Appendix I, Photo 9 56 20