Myanmar To Introduce Wireless Internet System Next Year

Myanmar is striving to introduce a wireless internet system of WiFi by early next year, Xinhua quoted the local weekly 7-Day News as reporting Wednesday.

Arranged by the local IT company of Exotic Wing, the system will be in service starting with the coverage of 16 main townships in the former capital city of Yangon, the company sources was quoted as saying.

Provisionally, such system is being granted for use in Yangon's Hyper Market and Sakura Tower only and WiFi hot spots are being installed in the hub of the city to enable that the system could formally start running in early next January, the report said.

By then, laptops with the WiFi system can enter the world from any corner of the city, the Chinese news agency quoted the report as saying.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has planned full coverage of public access centers (PAC) in every township in the country by next March to facilitate communication links.

There are so far 240 PAC in Myanmar, according to the Myanmar Info-Tech.

The telecommunications authorities also revealed that the number of internet users in Myanmar has also reached nearly 300, 000, up from merely dozens four years ago.

Myanmar has been striving for the development of ICT to contribute its part to the national economic development.

In December 2007, Myanmar's first largest ICT park, also known as the Yadanabon Myothit Cyber City, was introduced in Pyin Oo Lwin, a northern city of Myanmar in Mandalay division.

The cyber city, which covers an overall area of 10,000 acres (4, 050 hectares), is located in the hilly Pyin Oo Lwin near a highway, 67 kilometers east of the second largest city of Mandalay in the north, and 20 percent of the cyber city area produce software and hardware.

The internet of the cyber city not only links with the whole country but also connect neighboring China, Thailand and India.

Meanwhile, more and more local and foreign information technology (IT) companies have sought investment in the cyber city for the development of IT business undertakings.

According to the authorities, it has allotted 372 acres (150 hectares) of land plot for 35 more local and foreign IT companies to work in the cyber city.

Myanmar has been lunching ICT development master plan under the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) and detailed programs to link international networks are also being carried out in accordance with the master plan drafted by the Myanmar Computer Federation.

Being a signatory to the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement initiated at 2000 Singapore summit, Myanmar has formed the e-National Task Force to support the IT development.

Besides, the country has also signed a series of memorandums of understanding since 2003 with such companies as from Malaysia, Thailand, China and South Korea on ICT development.