2. Research problem Myanmar is at a critical juncture in time. A shift in the country’s economic policies has taken place since 2012, orienting the country towards a more market led mechanism. The telecommunications sector has undergone significant liberalization, with two international operators being granted licenses to compete with the incumbent. The incumbent too has contracted outside expertise and is investing a significant amount of funds towards improving their services. While the liberalization of the market is a step towards the right direction, it is essential that regulatory best practices are encouraged to facilitate welfare gains to all. However, one size fits all policies may not be the panacea in finding optimal solutions. LIRNEasia, which has worked extensively in the ICT policy sector in developing Asia, was well positioned to lay out the dangers of incoherent policy making. Its close ties with MIDO further reinforce this position. As such, this project was conceived with the ultimate objective of playing a role in increasing the Internet subscriptions and users per 100 to above the average of comparator countries. Toward this end, research, capacity building and policy intervention activities are included in this project. One of the key research objectives of the project was to gain a good understanding of how individuals in Myanmar, particularly ones at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) use ICTs, and how that use is evolving as the market develops. LIRNEasia conducted a nationally representative baseline survey of ICT uses and needs in 2015.3 The baseline survey forms the base of much of the demand side research (quantitative and qualitative) that is being conducted through the current grant. 2.1 Demand-side research: Quantitative 2.1.1 2015 baseline and 2016 follow-up survey While initial top-line analysis of the nationally representative baseline data was conducted in March-April 2015, the current grant has enabled continued analysis of the data, specifically to measure socio-economic impacts of the expansion of mobile coverage in Myanmar. The impact analysis was conceived during the previous grant, which led to a baseline survey being conducted. The rationale behind this was to take advantage of the unique opportunity to witness mobile connectivity surging from close to zero soon after liberalization of the sector. There is much potential for mobile phones to play a role in socio-economic development, be it through access to specific services such as mobile money or simply through the access to information afforded by the mobile phone. The original idea was to measure socioeconomic outcomes at baseline (when connectivity was expected to be non-existent in a large enough number of wards and villages) and then in a follow-up survey measure the same outcomes after those wards and villages had received connectivity, a year later. However, it was found that the proportion of wards and villages that were already connected just prior to baseline fieldwork was too high for this approach to work. Therefore data on the quality of the mobile signal was collected along with household and ward and village-level data, in order to enable other design approaches to be explored. Therefore, other approaches are being explored, and based on the data collected at baseline and instrumental variable approach seems most feasible at this point. 3 Facilitated through IDRC project number 107077-001