Bombing Mytel and Saying
Goodbye to Telenor
Passive resistance has turned into forceful resistance. Just after Mytel relaunched its business
page on Facebook in early September (which has since been taken down by Meta in early
December), came a wave of attacks on hundreds of its telecom towers by the PDF across the
country. The majority of the bombings were in the Sagaing-Magway borderlands. “Our attacks
interrupt connectivity for Mytel users, and that is one of our objectives, to damage the service
and cut the military’s revenue streams.” explains a PDF member to DVB, who found out that
"each Mytel tower has a value of between USD 200,000 and USD 300,000: a significant burden
to bear for Mytel, who now face the dilemma of establishing security measures to protect
some 4,488 transmission towers and 14,129 base transceiver stations."
The hostilities around one of the most crucial public military monopolies are escalating. On
September 23rd, a police officer was shot dead in front of the Mytel office in Monywa, which
was targeted by a bomb a week earlier. On October 18th, in Pyapon, Ayeyarwady, 30 youths
were arrested after a Mytel telecom tower was bombed nearby. As conflict erupts in every
corner of the country, the military council, which doesn't have enough men to provide security
for all of its infrastructures, announced that landmines had been planted near some towers
and is threatening anyone who approaches with being shot. In Yesagyo, Magway, Muse and
Shan State, Mytel employees fell victim to mine explosions. One lost a leg after stepping on one
of the mines. In Mawlamyinegyun township, villagers have been ordered to guard a Mytel
tower at night or be fined 20,000 kyats.
On November 4th, Thein Aung, a former major in Myanmar’s navy and Mytel’s Chief Financial
Officer, was shot dead while he went for a walk with his wife, who was also injured. He held
leadership positions in multiple military-owned ventures, including as the general manager of
the conglomerate MEC and its subsidiary Star High Company Limited. Nobody has taken
responsibility for the assassination, the most notable of a junta associate since the coup. But
four people accused of being part of the Yangon Defense Forces (YDF) have been arrested for
the killing.
The bloody battle around Mytel runs parallel to the chaos around the Norwegian multinational
Telenor, hitherto considered as the most transparent telecom provider in the country. 95% of
Telenor's 187 million customers worldwide are in Asia, including 18.2 million customers in
Myanmar, a third of the population.
Telenor determined that they could not operate under the pressure and governance of the
junta. In July 2021, Telenor moved to sell its Myanmar branch for USD 105 million to the
Lebanon-based M1 Group. The company was worth an estimated USD 600 million. "There are
three reasons why we think a sale is necessary: it is the safety of our employees, but also the
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