It is always good to keep up with what Myanmar-booster Xinhua says about internet use in Burma.

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Myanmar strives to improve public internet services to push ICT development
Xinhua General News Service
4 October 2006

Yangon: Myanmar is striving to improve public internet services and
planning to introduce 400 public internet service centers in 324 townships
in the country within three years to facilitate communication links,
according to local media.

As the first phase of the project, 100 such centers, also known as the
Public Access Centers (PAC), will be opened in the current fiscal year of
2006-07, the first year of the three-year project which began in April,
the Myanmar Info-Tech disclosed.

So far, 50 PAC have been set up in such areas as Yangon, Mandalay,
Pyinmana, Pyay, Magway, Muse, Myitky-ina, Monywa, Pathein and Taunggyi, it said.

The internet services, which include E-mail and network game, were made
available by the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and
the Myanmar Info-Tech.

To improve the country's internet access, the authorities are also
extending connections of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) to
every township, setting the target to be met by the end of this year.

According to the MPT, ADSL has already been installed in some areas of
Yangon and the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw, and 7,000 more ADSL connections
will be added to link the whole country under a national plan which also
involves vast replacement of its existing telephone wires to make the
internet connections 500 times faster than now.

The present telephone wire capacity of 4 kilobytes per second would be
upgraded to 2 megabytes per second, the MPT said.

At present, internet subscribers are said to be frequently meeting with
difficulties of downloading from the internet promptly.

Some businessmen and companies relying on internet to run their businesses
welcomed of the target to extend the ADSL installation to across the
country, and hoped more would be done to improve the existing connections.

According to official statistics, the number of internet users in Myanmar
reached over 70,000 as of the end of 2005, up from merely a few thousands
in 2000, registering the highest rate of increase in five years in
Southeast Asia region.

Despite the sharp increase, the number of internet users in the country
still stands the least compared with other SEA countries with one internet
user per 1,000 population.

Meanwhile, a Myanmar and a Canadian information and communication
technology (ICT) companies have reached a memorandum of understanding
(MoU) to run an internet service provider (ISP) in Myanmar as part of the
country's bid to expand such services, earlier reports said.

The ISP will be established by the Ahaed Co. of Myanmar and the Teleglobe
of Canada and the internet-based telephone system will be extensively used
after the establishment.
Besides, a Hong Kong company, the SS8 Networks Inc., has also agreed with
an ICT company of Myanmar to run security services for ISPs in Myanmar,
according to reports.

So far, Myanmar has launched some e-government systems including e-visa,
e-passport, and e-procurement to effect management of government bodies.

The country introduced e-education system in early 2001, with one ICT park
(now known as Info-Tech) in Yangon and another ICT park (now known as
Yadanabon Cyber Corporation) in Mandalay having been set up in the two
following years to provide ICT services in the country.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has also launched an ICT development master plan under
the Initiative for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Integration, aimed at narrowing the development gap among the regional
members. Detailed programs to link international networks are also being
carried out in accordance with the master plan drafted by the Myanmar
Computer Federation (MCF).

Accordingly, Myanmar is developing an ICT-related new satellite town in
Pyin Oo Lwin, northern Mandalay division, and construction of a teleport
and incubation in the satellite town as the first phase is underway,
earlier reports said.

The new satellite town named Yadanabon Myothit, which covers a land area
of 10,000 acres (4,050 hectares) and located near the second largest city
of Mandalay, is striving to become a silicon mountain town attracting
private investment in the ICT business.

Being a signatory to the e-AFA initiated at 2000 Singapore summit, Myanmar
has formed the e-National task Force to support the IT development.

The country has also signed a series of memorandums of understanding since
2003 with companies from Malaysia, Thailand and an ASEAN organization on
ICT development.

With the improvement of public internet services, the country sees a step
closer towards ICT development, experts said.