The local residents submitted to the petition to the village group administrator on March 30 after the ground was dug up and a brick platform was being constructed to install the telecommunication tower at the former football field in the area between Nam Tee and Ngum In villages on March 29.

“We were told about the tower installation in our village last year. It wasn’t installed because all of us came together and objected to it. The company came again after the [village] group administrator was changed. The villagers didn’t know about it. [The company] only discussed with the [village] group administrator and started to build the tower on the 29th. We don’t agree to it. Nobody is living there now but people will build houses and live there in the future. They will grow plantations. If this tower falls, it will cause danger to the public. That’s why we are protesting,” said Sai Kham from Nam Tee Village Group.

Around ten residents from the surrounding area of the planned telecommunication tower and over 20 residents from Nam Tee and Ngum Inn villages signed the petition and submitted it to the village group administrator, village administrator, and head of ten households.

Sai Kham said the construction has been halted on March 31 due to the local residents’ objection.

Sai Kham Pan from Namhkam said the telecommunication tower is being built by MEC Company, which will provide a CDMA network, and the company has been building towers in rural areas with limited telecommunication access.

 “If the public wants to use good phone lines and internet, how can they have better phone lines without building these towers? Some of the people from this village have come to tell us that they don’t have good phone lines. If you want something, you have to give up something,” he told the Shan Herald.

Besides MPT, MEC, Telenor, and Ooredoo, some Chinese SIM cards are also being used for public communication in Namhkam, which is near the China border.