Hello from the Other Side:

Access to Alternative Communications & Digital Resilience

in Myanmar's Internet Shutdown Areas

The Myanmar Internet Project (MIP) conducted an interpretive study to investigate the lived realities of connectivity struggles in the war zones of Myanmar. Focusing on the Karenni, Sagaing, and Rakhine regions, the research synthesized qualitative insights through three core dimensions: Access, Adaptability, and Readiness, capturing the reality of connectivity as a contested and fragile resource.

Access - Five years of conflict have created a stark center-periphery digital divide, leaving resistance organisations controlled areas without mobile internet and dependent entirely on Starlink as their connectivity lifeline. Access, quality, and cost vary dramatically by location and controlling authority. The informal ecosystem sustaining this access: smuggled terminals, diaspora-sponsored bank accounts, ad hoc service shops is fragile and under mounting threat from tightening regulatory enforcement and terminal bans that are hitting hospitals, schools, and internally displaced people (IDP) camps as collateral damage in anti-scam operations.

Adaptability - The opportunity cost of staying connected is immense. Communities have responded by adapting to available technologies such as satellite terminals and bamboo-pole rigs, shifting to public internet use in shared shops or safe zones, and aligning their daily lives with the cyclical rhythms of ad hoc networks capturing and redistributing data during limited windows of connectivity. These workarounds carry heavy costs in time, money, and physical safety. The absence of reliable internet has reverberated across every dimension of socioeconomic life, disrupting mobile money transfers, healthcare delivery, and education in ways that compound the existing hardships of displacement and conflict.

Readiness - Preparedness efforts are active at every level - from governing bodies, civil society, communities to individuals - but remain fragmented and uncoordinated. When Starlink fails, information reverts entirely to radio and physical channels. De facto governing bodies serve as critical information anchors but lack the technical and financial capacity for proactive digital planning, leaving communities with no clear pathway to long-term digital resilience.

Recommendations

• Humanitarian aid organizations and international donors should fund and scale the alternative communication ecosystems communities have already built, recognizing digital infrastructure as a form of humanitarian aid.

• Starlink and satellite providers should partner with civil society to create a 'do-no-harm mechanism' for humanitarian use - establishing vetting mechanisms through civil society organisations for humanitarian use of satellite terminals.

• Civil society organizations and digital rights advocates should deliver structured capacity building in digital security, AI literacy, and scam prevention, building on the informal self-protective behaviors communities have already developed.

• De facto governing institutions should develop a strategic vision for a heterogeneous digital infrastructure, integrating digital development and ICT for Development concepts into their recovery strategies to address the information deficit and establish a sustainable pathway for long-term digital resilience.

• The research and technology development community should consistently investigate possible alternative communication solutions, scalable community network models and further study the evolution of ad hoc community networks documented in this research.

What this research ultimately surfaces is that alternative communications in Myanmar's conflict-affected areas are not a temporary gap-filling measure awaiting the restoration of formal infrastructure. They can potentially become an alternative digital  infrastructure and the capacity to institutionalize and sustain these organic community networks will be the definitive factor in the digital redevelopment of a new Myanmar.

For the full report, please download the PDF below.

Hello_from_the_Other_Side_25_May_2026.pdf

Download PDF • 3.49MB

Recommended citation - Myanmar Internet Project. (25 May,2026),

Hello from the Other Side: Access to Alternative Communications and Digital Resilience in Myanmar's Internet Shutdown Areas, https://www.myanmarinternet.info/post/hello_from_the_other_side