Ever traveled to Myanmar (Burma)? Ever traveled outside of major tourist destinations in Myanmar? Ever tried to call home from Myanmar? Ever got the feeling of total cut off from the rest of the world? Ever experience frustration for not being able to call home and know what is happening at home? Welcome to Myanmar.
Telecommunication in Myanmar is probably the lowest in South East Asia. Auto telephone exchange are available only in some towns. Many towns in Myanmar still don’t have auto telephone exchange and still have to rely on manual exchange. Myanmar is probably the only ocuntry on earth with manual exchange. For trunk call, there are a few telephones (about 3 to 6 phones) in these towns installed at the manual exchange and at the Public Call Outlets (PCO). Some towns in remote regions have no land lines connected to the main communication hub, and have to rely on satellite links. For example, Mindat from Chin State has only six telephones using satellite links. In many instances, these phone lines are not very reliable and the voice quality is also bad.
Some towns and cities have autometic axchanges. However, due to limited trunk call lines to the central communication hub, call a trunk call or overseas calls are sometimes difficult. I once had an experience of trying to call to Yangon from Kalaymyo. It took me the whole morning to get the line. It really is frustrating.
Even in cities like Yangon and Mandalay, getting a fixed land telephone line is very difficult. I should say extremely difficult. Very few new land lines are installed in Yangon and Mandalay, and usually, the old lines are already full. New applications for a telephone line are almost always unsuccessful. This created a black market activity of reselling fixed land line telephones in cities across Myanmar. A black market price of a land line will cost as much as 4,000,000 kyats (more than US$ 3,000). After that, you still have to pay some money to the staffs at the telecoms office for the installation (it is illegal to sell back your phone line). Even then, it is still very difficult as very few people want to sell the phone lines, and even if you can buy, if you are in a different area, you cannot install a line as there is no vacancy at the exchange in your area. This really is a very bad situation. This leaves the only option, mobile phones.
Mobile phones were first introduced about 15 years ago. First generation mobile phones were very heavy, old, slow, noisy and analog. It was only available to a very few high ranking government officers and foreign diplomats. A few years later, government started selling CDMA mobile phones to the general public. However, there was a long waiting list, and only available to government officers and companies. Then come the GSM. It is faster, newer with better voice quality. The official selling price was 500,000 kyats (US$ 2,000 at that time). As usual, it was available only to government officers and those with connections in the government telecoms office. The official price was kept on increasing, to 1,000,000 kyats (US$ 1,000 at that time), then to 1,500,000 kyats and finally to 2,000,000 kyats (around US$ 1,500). This created another black market for mobile phone cards. The SIM cards are resold at twice the official price.
To solve the problem of telecommunication in Myanmar, some companies now offer a service of semiautomatic telephone exchange to housing projects, apartments and condominiums in Yangon and Mandalay. They install a few land or GSM phones, and set up a small PABX exchange. This way, the houses and rooms can share the few available telephone lines at a cheaper price.
The latest introduction of prepaid GSM mobile phone cards to the general public at an affordable price might change some of these landscapes. However, these prepaid GSM phone cards have thier drawbacks too. They are sold at US$ 20 each to anyone with ID card or passport, and easily available in supermarkets and phone shops in Yangon and Mandalay. They are currently quite popular now, but with no expansion in the current GSM infrastructure, the lines are expected to be congested soon.
Myanmar now has 416,000 fixed line phones with a density of 8 phones per one thousand population.
hello Dear Sir / Madam
this is my first time to visit and read various articles a bout myanmar as in detail and updated news all round.
Thanks for the effort.
Carry on
God bless
Ruatte
You know what I really hate? When I was living in Yangon way back in 96, 97, some phone calls would come in for people in another town. The people over there apparently have the exact same number. The phone lines were either shared or those people were hooked up to our number illegally.
These days, when we call home from overseas, we still have trouble getting through sometimes. Some days we would get to Myanmar exchange and they would either play a recorded message saying the services are down or nothing at all. The worst part is when that happens, it counts as the line being answered and we get charged the normal rates for Myanmar call. That is very expensive where I’m living.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I would like to know GSM Traffic for incoming call & outgoing call. Please reply to me. I really don’t know how to collect the GSM telephone bill.
Thank for your kindness.
Best regards,
Cupid
Thanks for the comment. I am not so sure what information you want to know. I suppose you are asking about the GSM mobile phone bills in Myanmar. For GSM mobile phone bills, the Myanmar Telecoms will send the bill every month. The out going call for Myanmar GSM phone is 25 kyats per minute. No charge for the incoming call, as far as I know. The rate for prepaid GSM phones are more expensive and you will also be charged for the incoming calls.
Is there any way to get a GSM sim card before arriving in Myanmar? I’ll be going as a tourist but need to be in touch with the office almost from the moment I get there.
As far as I know, there is no online seller selling Myanmar prepaid GSM cards, nor shop outside Myanmar (Burma) that sells Myanmar prepaid GSM phone cards. You will need to travel to Myanmar to buy one. You might be able to buy one at the airport although I am not sure whether any shop sells prepaid GSM cards at the airport or not.
Bamarlay:
my msn is Jackc312@hotmail.com. I want to ask you some more questions regarding mboile gsm cards
I want to know how much to pay for calling singapore from GSM
Dear _ i want to know how many charge per min for outgoing call from Myanmar to Singapore. Thanks and regards
Saw you guys writing in 2009. I need someone to advise me if now any sim card available in Yangon that able to sms/call Singapore since now 2011? How am i able to find out per sms to singapore from Yangon is? And where i can i buy this sim card and how much?
Government does not issue new prepaid SIM cards anymore. They are planning to issue new subscriber GSM SIM cards but they are refilled by prepaid cards. You cannot buy these new subscriber/prepaid cards at phone shops anymore. You need to apply at Government telecommunication department. It cost around 500 US dollar a card. SMS in Myanmar is only available inside Myanmar. No SMS service to outside world. You can call to Singapore with these cards but it is quite expensive.
im just wondering if u r acknowledge of telecom regulation and licensed operators in myanmar. such as Myanmar Post and Telecom (MPT) and yatanarpone teleport (YTP). is YTP a part of MPT or is YTP a licensed infrastructure provider? any source recommended will be appriciated.
many thanx
hello
I want to get some advice from you. Now I reach in China for studying.
I want to buy the mobile handset for my country but I don’t know which one is continent or not. In our country during this present 500000ks price mobile is very popular. I only know they are 450Mhz and 800Mhz. Please give me some advice for our country which type of handset is suit or not. I will hope your reply.
Thank you.
Maw Maw Htay
Wuhan University of Technology
China
Hi Maw Maw,
It depends on what type of SIM card(line) you are going to buy.
Here we hv GSM, CDMA 450 & CDMA 800 systems.
Government is planning to expend lots of GSM line with price around 300,000ks in first half of 2012.
Also they are going to allow roaming and internet service like EDGE and 3G.(now limited qty of GSM phones can use EDGE internet)
So, I think GSM system has more potential and you will hv more choices of handset frm Nokia, Samsung, Sonyericsson, etc…
I won’t recommend for CDMA 450 as it is Chinese developed system and you will end up with China made low quality handsets that can barely talk(no other functions)
As for CDMA 800, it is quite good that you can use internet on it and it has better signal reception than GSM.
You can find reasonable quality Hwawai brand handset with good functionalities.
But the problem is gov now stopped giving CDMA 800 lines at Yangon as it has limited supply.
Hope you get some idea now.
Cheers!
Ko Myo
Hi,
I would like to chat with you about telecoms in Myanmar.
Could you please add me on msn: voip28@hotmail.com
BC