Cordless phone towers closed due to suspected media link

Wed 24 Mar 2010, Hong Dein, IMNA
Cordless phone transmitter towers all over Mon State have been disabled since the third week of March 2010, in an attempt made by Burmese authorities to stem the flow of information being sent to exile media groups based along the Thailand-Burma border.

A Mudon Township cordless phone owner informed IMNA, “the Burmese authorities have ordered the phone offices up on the mountains to close since last week.”

A second phone owner from Mudon Township elaborated that the Burmese authorities’ increased frustration with the amount of information being leaked to media groups lead them to order the closing of cellular phone towers in the Townships of Moulmein, Ye, Thanphyuzayart and Mudon.

Cordless transmitter towers inside Burma are typically owned and run by independent, private owners. The practice of owning a private tower is technically illegal inside Burma, and their owners must typically pay large amounts of money to Village Peace and Development Council (VPDC) members in their villages, as well as various Burmese law enforcement factions. Disgruntled tower owners informed IMNA that the recent crackdown on transmitter towers by these same authorities has dramatically impacted their incomes, already partially depleted by extortion fees.

“Most of my income [from the tower] was given to the sa-thone-lone [Burmese intelligent agency], policemen, village headmen, and the secret police, because they would often come demand money from tower owners, because the phone towers are illegal,” an former tower owner, who asked to remain anonymous, complained.

A cordless phone owner in Moulmein explained that the crackdown on cordless towers is creating problems for Burmese families with relatives employed as migrant workers in Thailand. These individuals, who use cordless phones to transfer money into Burma and communicate with their families inside Burma, are having great difficulties making contact.

According to a second cordless phone owner in Moulmein, cell phone usage in Burma is widespread largely because of its low cost; one minute of cordless phone usage costs 300 kyat per minute, as opposed to one minute of satellite phone usage, which costs 600 kyat a minute. This source complained to IMNA that cordless phone connections were highly insecure, and that private conversations can easily be picked up on radio transmitters, and played for all to hear.