Northern Myanmar is experiencing a communications blackout that has cut Kachin state’s population off for 10 days, residents told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday, with telecoms providers promising to restore services but declining to say why they were down.
Junta officials have at times shut down telecommunication links in different parts of the country since seizing power in a 2021 coup, usually in response to a security crisis, often leaving victims of violence isolated and unable to call for help.
But residents who have left Kachin state said that while there has been fighting between the military and anti-junta insurgents over recent months, there did not seem to be a particular reason for the military to cut phone lines and mobile services in all 18 of the state's townships since July 21.
RELATED STORIES
Myanmar junta introduces random searches for VPNs
[ Anti junta forces set up satellite forces in 60 areasOpens in new window ]
[ Myanmar activist say junta will use SIM card registration to target oppositionOpens in new window ]
The junta has not made an announcement about the blackout. Myo Swe, director of the junta’s Ministry of Transport and Communications, blamed telecommunication operators for the failure but told Radio Free Asia he didn’t know why the services were down.
That is little comfort for families increasingly worried about being cut off from loved ones.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” said one woman in Myanmar’s main city of Yangon who has family in the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina.
“I still can’t connect with my family … I can’t even wire money to them,” said the woman, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals.
Junta-affiliated telecommunication operators that provide services in the region, Myanma Post and Telecommunications, known as MPT, and ATOM, both told RFA that they were working to restore services but did not give a reason for the blackout.
Since Myanmar's coup, junta officials have introduced increasingly strict measures to crack down on dissent, such as prohibiting the use of virtual private networks, or VPNs, and decreasing broadband speed nationwide.
As of July 22, the internet is inaccessible in 249 areas across the country due to direct military action, according to data collected by the Myanmar Internet Project, a civil society organization monitoring internet access. The Sagaing region has been the hardest hit by restrictions, followed by Kachin and Chin states.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.