Myanmar’s internet user base has increased from 2 million in 2014 to more than 39 million in mid-2016. The number of SIM cards in circulation has also increased by almost 400 percent in the period, Myanmar Times reports, citing government data. Myanmar ended May with 43.72 million SIM cards sold by Myanmar’s four operators Telenor, Ooredoo, state-owned Myanma Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), and MECtel, a subsidiary of military-run Myanmar Economic Corporation. The figure represents a mobile penetration of 89.38 percent of the country’s population, said U Soe Thein, director general at the Posts and Telecommunications Department. This compares to a mobile penetration of 6.99 percent at end-2012.
According to U Soe Thein, most internet users in Myanmar go online using 3G mobile broadband connections. “Before we initiated telecoms reforms, less than 2 million people used the internet. By 2015-16, there were 39 million internet users in Myanmar,” he said.
The number of towers deployed across the country also increased from 3,000 in 2013 to 11,700 in 2016, while the national fibre backbone has expanded from 7600 kilometres in 2013 to 31,000 km in mid-2016.
