Mobile Carrier Telenor Quits Myanmar, Says Coup Makes Doing Business Its Way Impossible (theregister.com) 17
Norwegian telco Telenor has quit Myanmar, selling its network there because the recent military coup has made it impossible to operate on its terms in the nation. The Register reports: A statement about the sale notes that Telenor had already written down the value of its Myanmar operation to $0. At the time of the write-down in May, Telenor valued the Myanmar assets at $780 million and said it would ponder its future presence in Myanmar depending on "developments in the country and the ability to contribute positively to the people of Myanmar" by offering "affordable mobile services [that] support the country's development and growth."
Company president and CEO Sigve Brekke now rates conditions in the nation as "increasingly challenging for Telenor for people security, regulatory and compliance reasons." "We have evaluated all options and believe a sale of the company is the best possible solution in this situation." The carrier has therefore sold its operations to M1 Group for $105 million. M1 Group describes itself as "a holding company that owns, manages and oversees investments engaged in diversified businesses." The group owns a stake in mobile carrier MTN, which operates mobile networks across Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan. Further reading: Myanmar's Internet Suppression
Company president and CEO Sigve Brekke now rates conditions in the nation as "increasingly challenging for Telenor for people security, regulatory and compliance reasons." "We have evaluated all options and believe a sale of the company is the best possible solution in this situation." The carrier has therefore sold its operations to M1 Group for $105 million. M1 Group describes itself as "a holding company that owns, manages and oversees investments engaged in diversified businesses." The group owns a stake in mobile carrier MTN, which operates mobile networks across Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan. Further reading: Myanmar's Internet Suppression
Businesses like coups (Score:5, Insightful)
as long as it's made by someone on their side. That coup must not be on their side.
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Weapons dealers will sell to either side.
Re:Businesses like coups (Score:5, Funny)
Weapons dealers will sell to either side.
Be careful what you wish for.
In Myanmar, even Karens [wikipedia.org] have weapons.
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That only means shooting them becomes legal as a way of self defense.
The Coup is very sad for Myanmar (Score:5, Informative)
Setting the country back to a very dark place. The military there is vicious and very nasty.
I can understand Telenor not wanting to be part of that.
It has gone off the news, but we in Australia should be taking a much more active role.
China supports the Coup.
Re:The Coup is very sad for Myanmar (Score:4, Insightful)
China supports the Coup.
China supports the coup because democracy was bringing ethnic warfare to their border.
Aung San Suu Kyi pandered to Burmese nationalists, and not only waged a genocidal campaign against the Rohingyas, but also against the Karens along the Thai border and the Kachin region next to Yunnan in China.
Democracy doesn't work so well in tribal societies, especially when introduced suddenly and without preparation upon a population with long-simmering grudges. Before the coup, Myanmar was an Asian Yugoslavia.
Re:The Coup is very sad for Myanmar (Score:4, Informative)
China never supported the coup. [...] they do support the idea that there's NON-INTERFERENCE in other country's affairs.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Taiwan, Tibet, and frankly several others would like you to fuck right off
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However they do support the idea that there's NON-INTERFERENCE in other country's affairs.
We are all laughing in your general direction you Chinese stooge Anonymous Coward.
You support Tibet and Taiwan going their own way as free countries? What about Chinese tendrils in Congo, Djibouti, and Angola?
You must be drunk if you think China doesn't interfere.
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I think you have a funny viewpoint on this situation, and especially on Aung San Suu Kyi's positioning in the mess. If there is anything that the coup does show, it's that she had good reason to be careful about provoking the military. She knew that from her viewpoint of being a prisoner for many years.
Also think you're distorting the Chinese perspective. Ethnic squabbles on China's border have rarely been an issue of concern, but have sometimes provided opportunities to seize advantage. In this case, they
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Democracy doesn't work so well in tribal societies, especially when introduced suddenly and without preparation upon a population with long-simmering grudges.
The problem is not democracy.
And by the way, without democracy, you either get an authoritarian ruler/ruling class which does pretty much what the majority would have wanted, in which case it's no better than democracy. Or you get an authoritarian ruler which does the opposite of what the majority wants, in which case it's often much worse than democracy.
I do not believe in the good willing authoritarian ruler theory. They do not exist, and even when they do, they quickly change to become corrupted.
Re:Businesses like coups (Score:4, Insightful)
When a country has been taken over by force like this there's no longer any meaningful rule of law, just people with guns telling everyone what to do.
It's also not uncommon to have several different people with guns telling you to do different things. This makes it an incredibly dangerous place to do any high-profile business. You can try your best to do whatever you're told and still wind up with employees getting shot. (and that may lead to expensive lawsuits back in your country of origin like USA/UK/etc)
And being in the communications business is probably second only to arms dealer in terms of the amount of control the "new management" wants to have on you. They were probably looking at immediate requests to censor and monitor communications in the country and rat out anyone not supporting the new people in charge. (stage 2 of a coup is "eliminating the resistance") Not supporting the current leader will get you arrested or shot, but if you support them and there's another coup (which is pretty common) then the NEW leader will be after you for helping the previous coup leader. Being in a position that forces you to publicly support any group in the middle of a power struggle is just plain dangerous.
Honestly, just getting out of there and waiting for the dust to settle is by far the safest response for them. I think they were lucky to be able to SELL their stake before packing up - I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd have just got up and walked away, writing off their losses.
Government demands (Score:1)
They don't want to comply with the military's demands that they implement lawful interception and customer identification/registration systems..
But it's not actually the military that created these laws, they were already in place when they got their telco licenses. The previous civilian government didn't enforce them so telcos cut corners and didn't bother to implement them.
Such provisions are also fairly standard - almost all countries have laws requiring telcos to provide access to law enforcement on req
MTN operates in Africa (Score:2)
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Of course, the difference is when my employer gives me a polo shirt, they don't expect me to play polo.