Bangkok, Thailand —
Across war-torn Myanmar, rebel commanders, aid workers and cyber-scammers alike are turning to billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites to stay in touch with each other and with the outside world amid some of the most severe internet restrictions.
Starlink is not licensed in Myanmar, and the military junta running much of the country has banned its use, yet orbiting satellites and smugglers on the ground still manage to meet some of the growing demand.
For many, “Starlink is now the only viable solution for instant internet,” an analyst for the Myanmar Internet Project, a local research and advocacy group, told VOA on condition that his name not be used for fear of retaliation from the junta.
The group has counted more than 300 internet shutdowns across the country since the military seized power from an elected government in a 2021 coup that set off a grinding civil war with no end in sight. It says nearly a quarter of Myanmar’s 330 townships are now completely cut off.
In its latest Freedom on the Net survey, rights group Freedom House gave Myanmar its worst score among the 72 countries it ranked for obstacles to internet access.
That has left people across large swaths of Myanmar scrambling for alternative channels to get online, and for a growing number of them that means Starlink.
A wholly owned subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX aerospace firm, Starlink operates over 6,000 satellites providing internet access from low Earth orbit, by far the most of any satellite-based internet provider.
Though the company does not officially serve Myanmar, “spillover” bandwidth from satellites serving other countries allows Myanmar to tap in, the Myanmar Internet Project analyst said. The junta is meanwhile losing control over growing swathes of the country, making its ban on the service increasingly moot. With the help of smugglers and a porous border, Starlink units have been trickling in from neighboring Thailand.
The Myanmar Internet Project estimates there are now well over 3,000 Starlink dishes up and running across the country.
“In some areas the regular phone calls even cannot be made, so … Starlink is the only viable option,” the analyst said. “And for people on the ground, information is now life or death. You cannot know if the air strikes are coming to you, you cannot show the people what is happening and what you are facing in Myanmar if you don’t have internet.”
The Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian aid group that works mostly along Myanmar’s border with Thailand, was among the first to start using Starlink in the country. The group’s director, David Eubank, told VOA it now uses over 30 of the units and has donated about 20 more to local hospitals, clinics and schools.
“Starlink has enabled us to have a signal where we’ve never had one before, and in the areas of blackout [it has been] very effective,” Eubank said.
“It’s not just us,” he added. “There’s clinics and hospitals and other humanitarian groups that rely on Starlink. It’s absolutely crucial, a life-saving and life-giving way to share information of all kinds — a way to give early warning, a way to get help in, and a way to tell a story, a way to communicate among loved ones, a way to escape. It’s the main thing.”
Eubank recalled a case in Kayah state from June of a landmine victim whose wounds were beyond the skills of the Free Burma Rangers medic at the scene.
“So, using the Starlink we contacted our surgeon friend in Germany, who’d been working with us before, and showed photos and videos and worked back and forth through the Starlink, and the surgeon guided this … medic to make the procedures necessary to save what was left of the leg and save this young man’s life.”
The satellite service has also become “incredibly useful” to the many armed groups fighting the junta where there never was internet service or where mobile towers have been disabled or knocked out, Richard Horsey, senior adviser for the International Crisis Group, told VOA.
“Reliable internet access is very important for command and control of forces, for operational planning — for example, Google Maps and other providers of satellite imagery — and other purposes such as early warning of airstrikes,” he told said.
Among the rebel groups making use of Starlink is the Karenni National Defense Force, a coalition of armed groups fighting the junta across Kayah.