The United States Bureau of Industry and Security announced this week that it has added Mytel, a telecommunications company partly owned by Myanmar’s military junta, to its sanctions list.
In a statement released on Monday, the US government agency said that Telecom International Myanmar Co, Ltd—better known as Mytel—had been sanctioned for “actions and activities” contrary to US national security and foreign policy interests.
Specifically, the company has provided “surveillance services and financial support to Burma’s military regime, enabling the regime to carry out human rights abuses through the tracking and identification of target individuals and groups,” the statement said.
Myanmar’s military junta has controlled the country’s telecoms providers since seizing power in February 2021, enabling it to block internet and telephone connections and track users through SIM cards, according to the Myanmar Internet Project, a digital rights advocacy group.
“While other operators are not fully owned by the regime, they remain under its control. Operators like Mytel, which are entirely controlled by the junta, pose a greater risk as they enable more violations of digital rights,” a representative of the group told Myanmar Now.
The country has four main telecommunications operators: MPT, a joint venture between Myanma Posts and Telecommunications and Japanese companies; Ooredoo, bought by tycoon Zaw Win Shein of Ayeyar Hinthar Holdings; ATOM (formerly Telenor), owned by junta crony Thein Win Zaw; and Mytel.
In March 2022, one year after the military coup, Norway-based Telenor Group sold Telenor Myanmar to M1 Group and Shwe Byain Phyu Co, Ltd due to the junta’s attempts to control telecoms operators, including through wiretapping. The company was later rebranded as ATOM Myanmar.
Telephone and internet services have been cut off in around 87 townships across the country, according to a report released by Athan, a freedom of expression advocacy group, in mid-2024.
In other townships, internet and telephone services were only available through Mytel SIM cards, as the junta sought to force the public to use a company over which they had full control.
Mytel, which has millions of domestic users, is a joint venture 49 percent owned by Viettel Global Investment, owned by the Vietnamese military. Star High Company, owned by the Myanmar military, holds 28 percent and the Myanmar National Telecom Holding Public Co, Ltd, a public entity, holds 23 percent.
