SAGAING DIVISION – Sagaing PDF issued a warning to ATOM (formerly Telenor) on May 28 that they will deal with the telecommunications towers of the company in Sagaing the same way they have dealt with the towers belonging to junta-operated Mytel.
This is in response to the mobile network operator sending messages and making calls to its users, threatening to shut off the mobile service if they fail to register their SIM cards, in order to please the junta regime. The PDF warned that they will destroy the telecommunications towers of ATOM just like they destroyed the towers of Mytel.
Bo Yakha, the battalion commander of Battalion 1 of Sagaing District PDF said, “A SIM card only costs between 1,500 and 5,000 MMK while a telecom tower can cost from 500 million to 1 billion MMK. If they (ATOM) shuts down service for unregistered SIM cards, we will take down their towers.”
In their warning, the PDF team asked ATOM to consider and compare the value of a SIM card and the value of a telecom tower, and to ensure that it maintains service, warning that shut down of service will result in suitable actions taken on its telecom towers and regional branch offices.
One mobile user commented, “Oredoo (mobile network operator) is also doing the same, sending multiple messages asking people to register their SIM cards. They are even making the users of already registered SIM cards re-register. All operators are of the same will as the junta council, threatening and oppressing the users, shutting down mobile and internet networks as they please. There are a lot of difficulties when conducting businesses via mobile banking. MPT (another mobile network operator) is no different.”
The junta council had shut down mobile networks in some parts of the country after staging a coup and local defence forces in Sagaing Division said that some regions still have no access to mobile network even now.