November 1, 2007

After about two weeks of slow speed Internet line recovery, users in Rangoon today said access to the World Wide Web has been once again cut-off.

Internet users in Rangoon said, the internet lines, which have been made accessible for 24 hours since mid October, once again went off at about 8 a.m (local time).

Officials at the Myanmar Teleport, one of the only two Internet Service Providers in Burma, said the lines face interruption due to technical problems and it remain uncertain when normal lines could be re-install.

'The Oversea Gateway is down. And we don't know when the problem would solve. It went off since this morning,' an official at the Myanmar Teleport, the ISP which mostly provides services for civilian use and commercial activities, told Mizzima.

However, some believes that the internet might have been cut-off with a purpose and as a precautionary step to prevent the flow of information as it did in the recent August and September protests.

During the recent protests, tech savvy youths in Burma made utmost utility of the internet to post pictures and video clips of the authority's brutal crackdown on peaceful protestors. The junta, in its response, cut off the internet lines and also disconnected phone lines of key politicians and activist.

'What I think is that they [the junta] have a plan in cutting off the internet lines. Like in the recent protests, a lot of photos and video clips were spread through the internet because the lines were not cut,' an internet savvy youth in Rangoon told Mizzima.

He added that with a protest yesterday in Pakokku, the authorities might be prompted to crackdown if it continues today.

'May be that's why they want to first cut-off the internet in order to prevent information flowing out,' he added.
Another youth in Rangoon said, with the internet lines down, people particularly those jobs that rely on the internet are facing extreme difficulties.

'The problem is that, people who has family members in abroad loose contacts, but that's not severe. What is severe is that for people traveling abroad have to fill their online departure forms, so when internet is down, they cannot do it,' added the youth.