Internet Shutdowns in Myanmar and Bangladesh Internet Penetration in Myanmar For decades under military rule in Myanmar, information was strictly controlled and free expression and access to information, vital there as elsewhere around the globe, were severely limited. Such restrictions continued into the new millennium, to the extent that in the early 00s, SIM cards were a luxury, sold at an artificially high price (around US$5,000), thereby effectively limiting access to the internet and mobile phones to “members of associates of the state apparatus unlikely to challenge the status quo.”67 In 2011, Myanmar had the lowest mobile penetration in the world at 2.6 percent,68 and an Internet penetration rate of 1 percent.69 Access to information began to change with the liberalization of the telecommunications sector in June 2014, when the government granted operator licenses to two international companies: Qatari company Oooredoo and Norwegian company Telenor.70 The subsequent proliferation of mobile phone shops selling low-cost, web-enabled phones led to an rapid increase in the number of smartphone users in the country.71 According to a 2019 study, there are now more active SIM cards in Myanmar than there are people: the SIM penetration rate, at around 105%, puts the country ahead of Germany (78.8%) and the United States (77%).72 Mobile internet dominates in Myanmar, in part because of the affordability of SIM cards (about US$2), but also because the country’s fixed-line infrastructure has not developed at the same pace. Its broadband capacity remains “extremely low compared to other nations” and observers do not expect that to change in the near term.73 67 Gerard McCarthy, “Cyber-Spaces,” in Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Myanmar, ed. Adam SIMpson, Nicholas Farrelly, and Ian Holliday (Florence: Taylor and Francis, 2018), 92. 68 McCarthy, “Cyber-Spaces,” 93. 69 “Burma: Freedom on the Net 2019,“ Freedom House, https://freedomhouse.org/country/myanmar/freedom-net/2019 70 McCarthy, “Cyber-Spaces,” 93. Qatari company Oooredoo and Norwegian company Telenor. 71 McCarthy, “Cyber-Spaces,” 93. 72 McCarthy, “Cyber-Spaces,” 93. 73 Henry Lancaster, “Myanmar (Burma) - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses,” BuddeComm, last updated April 28, 2020, https://www.budde.com.au/Research/Myanmar-BurmaTelecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband-Statistics-and-Analyses. 17