Resistance sabotages eight Mytel cell phone towers in Mandalay Region

Anti-junta forces used explosives to disable eight telecommunications towers located in Mandalay Region’s Natogyi and Myingyan townships on Sunday, local sources said. The towers were located in the villages of Thin Pyun, Htein Pan, and Ywar Thit in Myingyan Township and the villages of Ku Kone, Ba Het, Thar Paung, Kan Gyi, and Kyauk Tan in Natogyi Township, according to local residents. Two of the towers collapsed, while six were left with damaged communication system devices, said a local man who spoke with Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity. A Mytel tower in Myingyan, destroyed on November 26 (Supplied) Myanmar Now has not independently confirmed the extent of the damage. A spokesperson for the Myingyan District People’s Defence Forces (PDF)—which operate under the command of the anti-junta, publicly mandated National Unity Government—said his group attacked the regime-controlled Mytel communications towers to mark the first month since the launch of the anti-junta Operation 1027 offensive. “This was done to commemorate November 26, one month since Operation 1027 began, and also in observance of the Tazaungdaing festivities,” the spokesperson said, referring to a traditional Burmese holiday celebrated at the end of rainy season. Mytel internet connections in the area had been down since the attack on the towers, the spokesperson said, but the junta authorities had still sent no one to inspect or repair the damage as of Wednesday. Anti-junta forces in Myanmar have also been known to salvage parts from damaged telecoms towers for use in handmade explosives. Resistance forces in Sagaing Region using salvaged parts from a communications tower in 2022 (Myanmar Now) Mytel, which became the fourth telecommunications carrier operating in Myanmar in 2017, is partly owned by the Myanmar military. The Vietnamese telecommunications company Viettel—itself controlled by Vietnam’s national defence ministry—owns 49 percent of the shares in Mytel, while the Myanmar military-run holding company Myanma Economic Corporation (MEC) holds 28 percent. The remaining 23 percent of shares are held by the Myanmar National Telecom Holding Public Company Limited. Along with the other military-owned conglomerate Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited, MEC was one of the first entities sanctioned by the United States Treasury in response to the 2021 military coup in Myanmar. Mytel was also among the military-affiliated companies targeted in a popular anti-junta boycott following the 2021 military coup in Myanmar. The telecoms carrier lost some two million users and close to US $25 million in profits in the three months after the coup, according to the human rights monitoring and advocacy group Justice For Myanmar. However, Mytel has benefited from preferential treatment by the military since the coup, including a lucrative tender to provide and operate an online platform for Myanmar’s national lottery.

Resistance sabotages eight Mytel cell phone towers in Mandalay Region

Bomb attacks felled two of the towers—which are operated by a telecoms carrier partly owned by the military—and damaged crucial communications devices on six others, according to local sources

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