The Norwegian telecoms operator Telenor signaled it is considering pulling out of Myanmar on Friday in response to a collapsing economy and escalating violence across the country.
“Telenor Group is in the process of evaluating various options with regards to its presence in the country,” the company said in a statement.
A Reuters report on Thursday that cited the industry publication TMT Finance said the company has been weighing plans to sell its Myanmar unit and has hired the investment bank Citi to help with the sale.
A Telenor spokesperson told Myanmar Now on Thursday that the company would not comment on “speculations or rumours.”
The SIM card provider is among four telecom operators in the country, and has around 18 million subscribers. It entered the market in 2014, when the military-backed government first allowed foreign investment in the industry.
Telenor wrote off the value of its Myanmar operation – $782m – in May, saying the worsening security and human rights situation in the country showed “limited prospects of improvement.”
The junta cut mobile and internet connections nationwide in the wake of its February 1 coup and continued to restrict access for months in a bid to stifle massive popular resistance to its rule.
Ooredoo Myanmar has shown interest in buying its competitor, the Reuters report said. Chinese buyers are also being invited to bid and would likely not be constrained by potential international sanctions, it added.
Ooredoo Myanmar was not immediately available for comment.
Oliver Spencer, an advisor at the digital rights group Free Expression Myanmar, said Telenor’s departure from Myanmar would worsen the already limited digital rights that people in Myanmar have.
“If Telenor leaves, all of that limited freedom that they had will also leave,” he told Myanmar Now. “Will privacy still exist in Myanmar?”
Phone users were unlikely to get “a replacement” for Telenor, nor a provider that was anywhere near as transparent, he said.
“Telenor… is leading in regards to setting international standards on telecoms companies and telecoms companies’ protection of human rights,” he added.
Telecom companies controlled by the Chinese and Russian government have friendly relationships with the Myanmar junta, he said, and might be given an operating license as a “gift.”
“Maybe the military will use the telco as a reward for those authoritarian countries that have supported the military in some way,” he added. “That’s a bit worrying.”
