Universal Service and the Digital Divide While eighty per cent of Myanmar’s 53 million people live in the countryside, mostly engaged in agriculture-related activities, the majority of telephones are located in Yangon (3.6 per cent teledensity) and Mandalay (2.3 per cent teledensity). In contrast Ayeyarwaddy, with a population of 7.1 million, has only 14,970 telephone lines (0.21 teledensity) with Rakhine having the lowest teledensity at 0.17. As of September 2004 Myanmar had 418,698 telephones, including over 63,000 mobile phones. According to The Irrawaddy, March 2003 there were 6,560 villages in Myanmar without phone lines. ITU data for Myanmar for 2002 suggests only 250,000 computers, or around 0.5 per 100 persons in the country where every computer has to be licensed and registered. In the same year Internet users were estimated at 25,000. By 2004 the estimated number of computers was no more than 300,000 and Internet users by end of 2006 less than 80,000.32 Although the military government is clearly hostile to permitting uncontrolled access to computers and to the Internet, the promotion of the economic use of ICTs is part of policy and takes place mostly under the auspices of the Ministries of Science and Technology and of Education. An e-Applications Working Committee co-ordinates various e-government initiatives such as e-passport and e-smart card projects, 33 while a project in 2004 to connect 3,000 villages to the Internet to facilitate commodity trading and the exchange of market information was launched by Bagan Cybertech and the MPT. In August 2004 the Myanmar Information and Communication Technology Development Corporation planned to open Public (Internet) Access Centres (PACs) equipped with computers and satellite television facilities in 300 townships with an investment between five and ten million kyat per centre.34 Myanmar is also in the process of establishing an optical fibre network which would include links among government ministries and serve as the backbone of a national communications system. The Yangon and Mandalay divisions are already linked. As part of a program by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to narrow the development gap between its older and newer members, Myanmar has pledged to raise the nation-wide teledensity rate of 0.8 per cent up to 3 per cent by 2006 in a country of 53 million people. (Xinhua, May 2004) That will be difficult to achieve without substantial changes to the current system. Looking Forward Broadband and Internet connections to the outside world are very limited, which will hold Myanmar back, even assuming the regime was more encouraging to outside communications. Wireless broadband and digital subscriber lines (DSL) have been installed in Myanmar’s two largest cities, Yangon (Rangoon) and Mandalay.35 Bagan 32 ‘ICT Profile of Myanmar’ prepared by Myanmar’s Posts and Telecommunications Department for 2004 APT (Asia-Pacific Telecommunity) meeting, http://www.aptsec.org/meetings/2004/ADF/ADFINPUT/ICT%20Profile/Myanmar%20PTD.doc 33 The e-passport project carried out by Iris a Malaysian Multimedia Super Corridor status company. 34 The ITU assisted in the establishment of the pilot project Mutipurpose Community Telecentre at Phaunggyi village, 76.8 kilometres away from Yangon. 35 There are around 1000 ADSL accounts and in the countryside about 100 iPSTAR satellite accounts. The Irrawaddy, March 2005.