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Some local private companies in Myanmar have been set to provide new high-speed communication lines to internet users under a cooperation program extended to the private sector by the state-run Myanmar Posts and Telecommunication (MPT), said a report of the Myanmar Times Monday.

The MPT is currently the only source of new internet services in the country since the Myanmar Teleport (formerly Bagan Cybertech) suspended providing new service lines in 2004.

Among the private companies which will provide high-speed asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) services to private users are the Myanmar Info-tech, a consortium of ICT companies, Global Technology and Myanmar World Distribution, the report said, adding that the latter two will use the Thaicom-3 satellite to bring internet access to the country’s remote areas.

According to the telecommunications authorities, the number of internet users in Myanmar has reached nearly 300,000, up from merely 12 in four years ago. Although the telephone wire capacity has been upgraded to 12 megabytes (MB) per second from 2 MB previously, the internet lines are still so congested that arrangements are to be made to upgrade the capacity further to 45 MB in the future.

To improve the country’s internet access, the authorities are also extending ADSL connections to every township, setting the target to be met by the end of this year.

Myanmar is striving to improve public internet services and 50 public access centers (PAC) have emerged this year in such areas as Yangon, Mandalay, Pyinmana, Pyay, Magway, Muse, Myitkyina, Monywa, Pathein and Taunggyi. It has projected 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 PAC centers will be opened in the current fiscal year of 2006-07, which is also the first year of the three-year project which began in April, the Myanmar Info-Tech disclosed.

The internet services, which include E-mail and network game, were made available by the MPT and the Myanmar Info-Tech.

According to the MPT, ADSL had 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.

Source: Xinhua

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