The [him] moderator thinks that the primary reason to block internet usage is political and not financial. Read on …

Google ban designed to safeguard revenue, says media watchdog
Clive Parker
The Irrawaddy
5 July 2006

Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday that Burma’s ban on Google was
designed to help the junta avoid losing money on its telephone and email
services as people move to free web-based communication.

The government in late June banned Google’s increasingly popular Google
Talk along with a similar program, Skype, as well as Gmail and a lesser
known free mail service, Sailormoon.com. At first, analysts speculated the
move was designed primarily to clamp down on unchecked communication
internally and abroad.

Paris-based media watchdog RSF says, though, the government is also trying
to eliminate the global competition to its own telephone and email
services: “The decision to ban Gtalk and Skype were taken partly for
financial reasons,” it said. “Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services
were breaking into the profitable long-distance telephone call market, in
which the state has a monopoly.”

A Rangoon-based journalist who declined to be named said that the Minister
of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs, Brig-Gen Thein Zaw—the official
which ultimately oversees Burma’s telephone and internet services—has
recently complained that the ministry’s revenues had dipped. It was not
available for comment on Wednesday.

Burmese have increasingly taken to Google’s free web-based communication
tools, particularly Google Talk, which allows users to call others on the
system anywhere in the world for the price of an internet connection. By
comparison, an International Direct Dial call on Burma’s
government-controlled telephone system is among the most expensive in the
world. A call to the US costs US $4.50 a minute, while neighboring China
is $2.25 a minute.

Burma has always attempted to ban free email services—85 percent of
web-based email are blocked in Burma, according to research last year by
the Open Net Initiative, a collaboration between Harvard University, the
University of Toronto and Cambridge University.

This allows the only two providers in the country—Myanmar Posts and
Telegraphs and Bagan Cybertech—to maintain a monopoly in the domestic
market. An email account with Bagan’s Mail4U costs 8,000 kyat ($6) a year
and requires users to submit detailed personal information. One of Burma’s
leading IT companies, Softcomm Technology, says there are now 400,000
email users in Burma—less than one percent of the population. If all used
free email instead of the official service, then Burma’s fledgling IT
sector would lose $2.4 million a year in what is a rapidly growing market.

RSF said that “the authorities, who already block access to Yahoo! and
Microsoft email services, want to force Burmese Internet-users to use
Mail4U,” which is provided by Bagan, “a state enterprise that filters and
controls email content.”

The organization commented that the ban on Google—which seemed to hit
Rangoon before it applied to the rest of the country—was sporadic.
Research by The Irrawaddy, however, suggests that it is comprehensive, but
some users were avoiding the restriction through proxy servers which
circumvent the blocks imposed by Burma’s internet service providers. Proxy
servers have been used by people with the necessary knowledge for some
time in Burma, but their use is understood to have become more widespread.

Meanwhile, Myanmar Teleport—the infrastructure arm of Burma’s internet
system, which is responsible for blocking content—denied on Wednesday
there was any problem using Google. “People can use Google Talk and Gmail,
it’s okay,” said an unnamed network manager who declined to elaborate
further.

This appears to contradict the experiences of internet users in Burma, as
well as Google itself, which said shortly after the ban that it was
“aware” of the problem. “We are currently looking into it,” spokesperson
Eileen Rodriguez said.

Burma’s internet system, which RSF said was fast-becoming a closed
“intranet,” is considered highly restricted. RSF lists Burma as one of
only 15 internet “blackholes,” along with North Korea, China, Cuba and
Iran. The Open Net Initiative last year described Burma as “one of the
world’s most restrictive regimes of internet control.”

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Internet use up in Mandalay
Kyaw Soe Linn
Myanmar Times
July 10-16,

The number of internet users in Mandalay has increased by a factor of four
in the past three years, according to IT industry experts in the city.

“More and more people are using the internet, at government offices and in
private organisations,” said a representative of Mandalay’s Yadanabon
Cyber Corporation. “One reason is that computer training classes are now
including internet usage in their programs.”

He said that in the past, most internet users were young, but now people
of all ages are logging on.

“Football fans visit websites for information on players and matches,
medical professionals check healthcare sites, businesspeople check the
prices of commodities in the market, academics search for information for
research papers and people with relatives overseas send emails,” he said.

Ko Phyo Wai Aung of Japan Cyber Café said some people also download free
software from the internet.

With the number of internet cafés in Mandalay having risen from three in
2003 to the current 10, the business is getting more competitive as well.

“We serve free coffee to our customers and are only charging K500 an hour
for the entire month to commemorate our opening,” said Ma Mya Thida Aye of
Xeon internet café.

Ko Yan Lin Aung, manager of Evolution internet café, said he uses seven to
eight gallons of diesel a day to keep his business running but is not
concerned about profits at the moment.

“We’re looking at the long-term benefits of running the café,” he said.