Myanmar’s military-owned Mytel faced with destruction of telecom towers
Myanmar’s telecom service provider Mytel, the country’s third-largest mobile phone operator with a pre-coup and pre-Covid-19-pandemic market share of about 14 per cent, is faced with the destruction of a number of its telecom towers by anti-junta activists who target the company because it is partly owned by Myanmar’s military.
More than 80 telecom towers owned and operated by Mytel have been destroyed by physical force, explosions or torching by civilian resistance fighters across the country in the recent past, most of them in the Yangon region, around Mandalay and in the western-central Magwe region.
Mytel is a joint venture launched in 2018 by government-owned Star High Public Company, which is run by the Myanmar military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation, Myanmar National Telecom Holding (MNTH), a consortium compromising 11 companies close to the military, and Vietnamese telecom company Viettel, a Hanoi-based state-owned enterprise operated by Vietnam’s Ministry of Defense.
Viettel owns a 49-per cent stake in the joint venture, while MNTH has a 23 per cent stake and Star High Public holds a 28-per cent stake.
Wide-ranging boycott since the coup
The targeting of Mytel telecom towers has accelerated since early September after the shadow National Unity Government declared a nationwide people’s defensive war against the military regime, The Irrawaddy wrote.
Myanmar people have been boycotting Mytel services since the February 1 coup in protest against the military takeover. Mytel offices and telecom towers were first targeted in early April in response to the regime’s brutal crackdowns on peaceful anti-coup protesters.
The company has come under repeated fire for nationalistic marketing, corruption, alleged mass surveillance of clients and unpaid wages.
Myanmar’s telecom service provider Mytel, the country’s third-largest mobile phone operator with a pre-coup and pre-Covid-19-pandemic market share of about 14 per cent, is faced with the destruction of a number of its telecom towers by anti-junta activists who target the company because it is partly owned by Myanmar's military. More than 80 telecom towers owned and operated by Mytel have been destroyed by physical force, explosions or torching by civilian resistance fighters across the country in the recent past, most of them in the Yangon region, around Mandalay and in the western-central Magwe region. Mytel is a joint venture...
Myanmar’s telecom service provider Mytel, the country’s third-largest mobile phone operator with a pre-coup and pre-Covid-19-pandemic market share of about 14 per cent, is faced with the destruction of a number of its telecom towers by anti-junta activists who target the company because it is partly owned by Myanmar’s military.
More than 80 telecom towers owned and operated by Mytel have been destroyed by physical force, explosions or torching by civilian resistance fighters across the country in the recent past, most of them in the Yangon region, around Mandalay and in the western-central Magwe region.
Mytel is a joint venture launched in 2018 by government-owned Star High Public Company, which is run by the Myanmar military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Corporation, Myanmar National Telecom Holding (MNTH), a consortium compromising 11 companies close to the military, and Vietnamese telecom company Viettel, a Hanoi-based state-owned enterprise operated by Vietnam’s Ministry of Defense.
Viettel owns a 49-per cent stake in the joint venture, while MNTH has a 23 per cent stake and Star High Public holds a 28-per cent stake.
Wide-ranging boycott since the coup
The targeting of Mytel telecom towers has accelerated since early September after the shadow National Unity Government declared a nationwide people’s defensive war against the military regime, The Irrawaddy wrote.
Myanmar people have been boycotting Mytel services since the February 1 coup in protest against the military takeover. Mytel offices and telecom towers were first targeted in early April in response to the regime’s brutal crackdowns on peaceful anti-coup protesters.
The company has come under repeated fire for nationalistic marketing, corruption, alleged mass surveillance of clients and unpaid wages.
