In March 2021, Justice for Myanmar (JFM) disclosed that "the Myanmar military may be entitled
to receive over US$700 million in dividends over ten years for their share in the militarycontrolled mobile network operator. These astronomical profits come from the people of
Myanmar who are suffering immensely under the military’s tyranny. Every phone call on the
Mytel network and every kilobyte of data finances the people’s oppression.”
The business ties between the militaries of Myanmar and Vietnam (Viettel) are a source of
great worry for users. Via Mytel, Viettel and its military shareholders, Myanmar’s generals gain
unrestricted access to money, technology, and data which can be used for surveillance. A
phone shop owner in downtown Yangon interviewed in mid-August said, “During the
revolution, the number of people buying Ooredoo and Telenor SIM prepaid bill cards has
increased, and the number of people buying new Mytel top-up cards and SIM cards has
decreased significantly. People broke, burnt and threw away their Mytel SIM cards. Users of all
Mytel-related apps downgraded and wrote bad reviews on the Playstore/App Store and Mytelrelated businesses were shut down after being reported as scams on Facebook.” From
February to April, boycott efforts against Mytel have reportedly cost the network USD 24.9
million and a loss of 2 million subscribers.
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