This is Myanmar Tech Press’s weekly column. We connect recent coverage, check back on things we flagged earlier, and add the analysis a single news article doesn’t have room for. This time there were three stories: a five-year-old data decision that has reached a Norwegian prosecutor, a broadband price rise that came with no reason attached, and a 5G event that didn’t update anything.
This Week’s Articles
Norway Charges Telenor ASA Over Its Myanmar Business
On 15 September 2026, Norwegian police charged Telenor ASA in two investigations linked to its former Myanmar subsidiary. One is suspected complicity in crimes against humanity over historical customer traffic data allegedly handed to the military between February 2021 and March 2022. The other is a suspected sanctions breach connected to the 2022 sale. Telenor says it had “no real choice” because staff faced serious threats. Prosecutors accept the pressure was real but say the bar for a necessity defence will be high. No individual has been charged, and no court has ruled. Read the full piece.
What we would add now: the article is careful to separate Telenor ASA from ATOM, and that line should stay sharp. The number worth keeping in view is time rather than the 1,300 or 18 million figures. The events happened in 2021 and 2022. Charges came in September 2026, and only after NRK obtained internal documents in 2025. For subscribers, that means the consequences of a data decision can surface years after the fact, and usually through journalism rather than disclosure. As the Telenor article notes, the registries around a Myanmar SIM, such as CEIR and the UID pilot, have grown since 2021. The same four-year lag could apply to decisions being made about them today.
Myanmar Net Raises CANAL+ Bundle Prices From October
From 1 October 2026, Myanmar Net’s 24 Mbps TV & Phone CANAL+ bundle rises from 44,500 to 46,500 kyats a month, and the 10 Mbps Phone bundle from 26,500 to 27,500 kyats. This is the company’s third price or fee change of 2026, after an installation-fee change in February and a broader tier repricing in March. None of the three notices gives a reason. Read the full piece.
What we would add now: there are two ways to read this, and our archive (below) lets us test one of them. Taken as a trend, small repeated increases with no explanation look like a company passing on costs it doesn’t want to name. Taken over a longer span, the nominal kyat price of a Myanmar Net home connection has barely moved in nine years while the speed has risen many times over. Both readings are true at once. The real question for subscribers is what those kyats are worth now, because the currency has not stood still.
Myanmar’s 5G Timeline Gets a Site Visit, Not a Progress Report
On 20 September, Deputy Minister U Thet Win Aung met operators in Yangon and said 5G is expected “in the near future,” according to Eleven Media Group. He then toured four facilities, including Mytel’s data centre. Compared with the 18 August announcement (2600MHz spectrum, about 1,000 new base stations, a target of roughly January to March 2027), the visit added no date, no tower count and no spectrum detail. Read the full piece.
What we would add now: put next to the Telenor story, the Mytel stop gets more interesting. The Telenor case is a reminder that who operates a network, and who they answer to, matters as much as its speed. 5G will mean new base stations, new core equipment and, eventually, new subscriber records. Nobody has said yet which vendors will supply the 2600MHz build or under what data rules. That is a better thing to ask for than another launch date.
From the Archive: What 44,000 Kyats Bought in 2017
In June 2017 we published a round-up of Myanmar’s internet service providers, with Myanmar Net listed first. By that article’s price table, a home CPE connection at 1.5 Mbps cost 44,000 kyats a month. The CPE itself carried an initial cost of 47,000 kyats, and service covered seven central Yangon townships plus selected condominiums and a few streets in Mandalay. Today, 44,500 kyats (before October’s rise) buys a 24 Mbps connection bundled with CANAL+ television, and the February notice set installation at 32,000 kyats.
On paper, that is about 16 times the speed for almost the same monthly figure. Two cautions apply. First, the 2026 plan includes pay-TV, so the comparison is not like-for-like. Second, and more important, a kyat in 2026 is not a kyat in 2017. As this week’s Myanmar Net article notes, the official exchange rate and the rates people actually face have diverged in recent years. In real terms, the connection has become much cheaper for anyone earning in foreign currency. For someone earning kyats, it may not have. That is why an unexplained 2,000-kyat increase lands differently than the headline percentage suggests.
One Thing Worth Watching
Answered from last time: we asked whether any operator would publish a count of dedicated 5G base stations. As of the 20 September ministry visit, the answer is still no. That was the most obvious occasion to release one, and it passed without a figure. The question stays open.
Still open, carried over: Mytel and TV360 have still not published viewership or attendance figures tied to the World Cup broadcast rights. We have also found no on-record confirmation from the Central Bank of Myanmar, or from K-Pay, Wave Money, AYA Pay or CB Pay, of whether the overseas geo-block took effect or whether it catches VPN users.
New this week: will ATOM, its current owners, or any Myanmar authority make a public statement on the Norwegian case? As of 21 September we found none. Separately, will Myanmar Net, or any other fixed-broadband provider, publish a reason for a 2026 price change? Three notices this year have given none. If a fourth arrives before the end of 2026, we will check whether it breaks the pattern.
About This Column
This is a recurring column from Myanmar Tech Press. It steps back from single-story coverage to connect recent articles with our own archive, and it tracks specific claims until they are confirmed or quietly dropped. Our regular reporting continues alongside it at the usual pace.