Residents experience prolong and frequent telecommunication cutoff in Mon and Tenasserim

August 16, 2024

HURFOM: Since May, 2024, there have been more and more armed clashes in Southern Ye Township, Mon State and Dawei, Long Lone, Tenasserim and Tha Yet Chaung Townships in Tenasserim Division, and the military junta has cut off telecommunication networks in villages in the townships.

“Kyone Ka Nyar has not had a phone signal even for a month. I can’t contact my home as of today,” said a villager from Kyone Ka Nyar village, Ye Township.

Since June 2024, Mee Tie Dat, Kyone Ka Nyar, Mi Htaw Hlar Lay, Mi Htaw Hlar Gyi, Ma Gyi and Ma Gyi Chaung Wa villages of Southern Ye Township also have had their telecommunication cutoff.

“The villages which are south of Khaw Zar Town have no MPT signal for a month. There is no electricity at the telecom tower so we don’t know if there is a fault in the tower or there is a cutoff,” said a Ma Gyi resident.

Villages that have telecommunication signals have also experienced frequent network disruption during the rainy season.

“The Internet is bad in the rainy season. I can’t even make a phone call from my plantation to my home in the village,” said a Ye resident.

Since the beginning of the month, intense battles between the military junta and the joint resistance forces in Northern Ye Township have been commonplace, and villagers say the military junta has intentionally cut off the telecommunication network to disrupt the information flow.

“The Internet has been getting slower since June. We’ve used the Ooredoo operator in Long Lone and we can connect to a VPN. But we can’t read news and updates on social media (due to very slow connection),” said a resident from Long Lone.

According to a report by the Myanmar Internet Project on July 16th, the military junta has implemented 275 telecommunication cutoffs since the attempted coup.

According to the report, the Mon State stands as the third worst place with 2.85% of telecommunication cutoff.

Written by Modinator · Filed Under News