According to the NGO, firms should say how they plan to protect users from illegal surveillance and censorship, given the current lack of legal human rights protections in Burmese telecommunications law.

On Thursday Myanmar’s government announced the winners of two 15-year nationwide telecommunications licenses, Norway’s Telenor and Qatar’s Ooredoo (formerly known as Qatar Telecom).

The companies and the government are to finalize the license process by September.

The government also named France Telecom-Orange’s consortium and Japan’s Marubeni as reserves should either of the winners fail to fulfil its commitments.

In its statement, Human Rights Watch said it is concerned that the Myanmar government has not yet established a new telecommunications law nor enacted key reforms to protect the rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and access to information in the mobile and Internet sectors.

“Now that the telecom licenses have been awarded, the winners have a responsibility to ensure their services are not used as new tools for censorship and surveillance,” said Cynthia Wong, senior Internet researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The time for maximizing protections for rights is now, before operating terms are set in stone.”

Telenor first established a presence in Asia with Bangladesh in 1998. The Norwegian company has since set up in some of the biggest mobile markets in Asia, adding Thailand, India, Pakistan and Malaysia to its portfolio.

Ooredoo was accused in 2006 of vandalising and spamming Wikipedia pages, and according to Stenden University Qatar, Qtel interfered with VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) systems in the past as well as on one occasion blocking Skype’s website.

“Burma’s [Myanmar] long record of rights abuses should give pause to the two license winners about government censorship, illegal surveillance, and even network shutdowns,” Wong said.
“The firms should put strong safeguards in place for their users, make clear that they will be transparent about government demands, and press the government to enact legal protections for rights,” she added.

Myanmar’s draft telecommunications law has not been finalized, though the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has reported that parliament will pass the law in July.

Although the latest draft has not been made public, a version reviewed by Human Rights Watch in March raised serious concerns that the new law would provide inadequate protections against abuses in a country with a long history of censorship and surveillance.

In March, the Telecom Industry Dialogue announced a collaboration with the Global Network Initiative to support and improve implementation of the companies’ human rights standards.Human Rights Watch is a member of the Global Network Initiative and has spoken about concerns raised in Myanmar with members, Telenor and Orange, directly.

“Burma’s investors and donors will be closely watching the steps taken by these telecom operators to protect the rights of their future customers,” Wong said.

“These ventures may set the stage as to whether foreign investment can play an important role in improving the rights situation for the people of Burma.”

The NGO suggests Telenor and Ooredoo to take several critical steps as they negotiate their operating license and entry into Myanmar. At a minimum, the companies should put in place policies and procedures setting out how they will prevent and address human rights abuses linked to their operations, including through formal operating licenses or other agreements with the government.

Given the risk of complicity in rights abuses, the telecom firms should also strive to increase transparency around government restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and privacy, Human Rights Watch said.