Read this before anything else
This is a connectivity guide, not an argument for going. Myanmar has been under military rule since the coup of 1 February 2021, with armed conflict across much of the country ever since. The state of emergency was lifted on 31 July 2025 and an election was held in December 2025; Min Aung Hlaing, who led the coup, was elected president by the resulting parliament on 3 April 2026 and inaugurated on 10 April 2026. The government is now nominally civilian and is widely assessed as continued military rule, and martial law remains in force in dozens of townships. Every government whose advice we checked warns against travel in some form. The US State Department has Burma at Level 4, Do Not Travel, reissued on 8 May 2026. The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Mon and Rakhine states, to Sagaing and Magway regions, to most of Tanintharyi, to Shan State North, to northern Mandalay Region and to Bago east of the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway, and against all but essential travel to most of what is left. Spain's foreign ministry recommends not travelling to Myanmar except for exceptional and justified reasons.
An eSIM cannot survive a network shutdown
This is the single most important thing on this page. An eSIM is a way of buying access to a mobile network; it cannot create one. Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition recorded 95 shutdowns in Myanmar during 2025 — more than any other country in the world, for the second consecutive year, and up from 85 in 2024. The military authorities imposed 76 of them, and they reached all fourteen states and regions. By April 2025 a total of 138 townships had faced mobile and internet shutdowns, and parts of upper Sagaing — Monywa, Salingyi, Ayadaw, Yinmabin, Mingin, Dipayin — have been cut off for years at a stretch. Whatever you buy, from us or from anyone, agree a communications plan with people at home that still works when the network does not.
One of the most censored internet environments there is
Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2025 scores Myanmar 9 out of 100 and ranks it, jointly with China, as the worst environment for internet freedom in the world. The same report records the installation of deep packet inspection equipment and a resulting VPN block. Myanmar's Cybersecurity Law No. 1/2025 was enacted on 1 January 2025; it requires ministry approval to establish or provide VPN services, carries imprisonment and fines for unauthorised provision, and reaches Myanmar citizens even for conduct outside the country. UK FCDO advice also records that services including Facebook and WhatsApp are blocked; Facebook has been blocked since 4 February 2021, days after the coup.
Be careful with what you read elsewhere on this. It is widely repeated online that "VPNs are illegal in Myanmar", and that is not quite what the law says: the offence it creates is providing a VPN service without approval, not an individual using one. What is also documented, though, is that VPN traffic is blocked technically, and that Access Now and Freedom House have both recorded people being arrested under other laws after street checks of their phones. Those two things together matter more than the letter of the statute.
We are not going to tell you how to get around any of that. If your work depends on it, that is a question for proper legal and security advice, not a travel page.
Practical consequences worth knowing
- A Level 4 or equivalent advisory commonly voids standard travel insurance. Check your policy wording before you assume you are covered.
- FCDO advice records a nationwide curfew in force and notes that some areas are under martial law while others have curfews or stay-at-home orders.
- FCDO advice says not to photograph or film police, demonstrations, military installations or military personnel, and that drone use around government buildings, religious buildings or even tourist sites can bring criminal penalties including imprisonment.
- Spain's foreign ministry notes that electricity and communications interruptions are a daily occurrence across the country, including in the major cities. Canada advises avoiding all travel to Myanmar.
- Myanmar activated a conscription law on 10 February 2024 covering men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27. It applies to anyone the local authorities consider a Myanmar citizen, and holding a foreign passport is not a guarantee of protection. If you were born in Myanmar or hold dual nationality, take advice before travelling.
Sources: US Department of State Burma travel advisory, Level 4, reissued 8 May 2026; UK FCDO Myanmar travel advice (updated 4 August 2026); Spanish Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Recomendaciones de Viaje para Myanmar (updated 22 July 2026); Government of Canada travel advice for Myanmar; Access Now / #KeepItOn, Internet Shutdowns in 2025; Freedom House, Freedom on the Net 2025: Myanmar; Myanmar Cybersecurity Law No. 1/2025. Advisories and laws change — check them yourself before you book anything.
Myanmar Mobile Networks & Coverage
Myanmar has four mobile operators, not three, and two of them changed name in the last few years. The graphic below shows where mobile coverage reaches; the cards under it name the operators as they are actually branded today.
Where mobile coverage reaches in Myanmar: dense in the cities and the central corridor, thin in the uplands and border states
MPT
State-linked incumbent
ATOM
Formerly Telenor Myanmar
U9
Formerly Ooredoo Myanmar
Mytel
Military-linked
The two names most guides still get wrong. Telenor sold its Myanmar unit into the Investcom joint venture and it was rebranded ATOM on 8 June 2022. Ooredoo sold its Myanmar unit to Singapore-registered Nine Communications and it was rebranded U9 on 20 September 2025. If a page tells you your phone will connect to "Telenor" or "Ooredoo" in Myanmar, it has not been checked since those sales. Neither brand exists in the country any more.
On Mytel, stated neutrally because some people need to know. Mytel is a joint venture whose shareholders include Viettel, run by Vietnam's Ministry of National Defence, and Star High Public Company, associated with the Myanmar military's Myanmar Economic Corporation. The US Department of Commerce sanctioned Mytel in January 2025. Some travellers and organisations avoid it deliberately for that reason. We mention it because leaving it out of a list of Myanmar operators would be the bigger distortion — and because, in fairness, the choice is narrower than it looks: MPT is the state operator, ATOM is majority-held by a local group that Canada sanctioned in October 2023, and U9 has an ownership structure that independent researchers describe as opaque. There is no clean option here, and a guide that implied otherwise would not be telling you the truth.
Myanmar in Brief
Capital
Naypyidaw. Yangon is the largest city and the main commercial centre
Population
About 54.9 million (UN, mid-2025). The World Bank series gives 54.5 million for 2024
Currency
The kyat (MMK). Myanmar runs multiple parallel rates: the Central Bank publishes a reference rate effectively fixed at 2,100 MMK to the US dollar, which is not what travellers transact at — real-world rates are reported at roughly double that. Do not plan on one number
Power
230V, plug types C, D, F and G. Outages are routine — carry a power bank
Language
Burmese, plus many other languages. English is limited outside the tourism trade
Time Zone
UTC+6:30, with no daylight saving. The half-hour offset is the one most calendar apps and most guides get wrong
Mobile country code
MCC 414, shared by MPT, ATOM, U9 and Mytel
Emergency numbers
Police 199, ambulance 192, fire 191 (Government of Canada travel advice; FCDO also gives 192 for an ambulance). Expect no English-speaking operator, and ambulance coverage is limited outside Yangon and the Yangon-Mandalay corridor. Save your embassy and your insurer's 24-hour line offline too
Entry
Tourist eVisa via the official portal: USD 50, 28 days, single entry, non-extendable, approval letter valid 90 days. No tourist visa on arrival. Rules change — check the official portal
eSIM or Local SIM in Myanmar: an Honest Comparison
Start here: we do not currently sell a Myanmar plan
We checked our own live catalogue on 12 September 2026 and it returned no purchasable Myanmar plan, on the development site and on production alike. Myanmar is also absent from every regional and global package we sell: buying an "Asia" package expecting it to cover Myanmar is the single most expensive mistake you can make preparing this trip. We would rather write that sentence than sell you something that will not work.
What each option actually gives you
A local SIM bought in Myanmar
- • Gives you a Myanmar number, which is what most local services and apps expect
- • Usually the cheapest data per gigabyte, by a wide margin
- • Requires registration with identity documents. Build time into your first day for it
- • Lets you choose which operator you are on — relevant if you are avoiding Mytel
- • Airport and shop opening hours apply. A late arrival means waiting until morning
A travel eSIM
- • Installs from home over Wi-Fi, before you fly, and sits alongside your normal line
- • No local registration queue, and no counter opening hours
- • Does not give you a Myanmar phone number
- • You do not choose the operator; you get whichever network the plan is declared against
- • Costs more per gigabyte than a local SIM, generally by a lot
The thing neither option fixes
Both are ways of buying access to the same four networks. When the authorities suspend service in a township, both stop working in exactly the same way and at exactly the same moment. This is not a hypothetical: 95 shutdowns were recorded in Myanmar in 2025, and 138 townships had been affected by April of that year. Choose between eSIM and local SIM on convenience and price. Do not choose between them expecting one to be more resilient, because neither is.
Register your handset for a longer stay
UK FCDO travel advice states that for longer stays you should register your phone's IMEI through the Central Equipment Identity Register official portal, and that otherwise the device will be automatically blocked from local networks. Note what that applies to: the handset, not the SIM or eSIM inside it. A blocked handset will not work with any SIM, local or travel.
What connectivity is genuinely useful for here
Myanmar eSIM Plans & Pricing
Live prices, not a marketing number
The block below reads our live catalogue. If it is empty, that is the honest answer: we have nothing available for Myanmar right now. Any price you see elsewhere on a Myanmar page that is not pulled from a live catalogue is worth treating with suspicion, including one that was on this page until recently.
Loading Current Myanmar eSIM Prices...
Setting Up Mobile Data for Myanmar
Do the preparation at home, on Wi-Fi
Everything below works better before you fly than after you land. That is true of any eSIM anywhere, and it is more true here, because the connection you would need in order to fix a problem is the connection that is not working.
Before you go
Check whether anything is available
Open the live Myanmar page and see whether we have a plan at all. At the time of writing we do not, and no regional or global package we sell includes Myanmar. If the page is empty, plan around accommodation Wi-Fi and a local SIM bought in-country.
Install the eSIM at home, if you have one
Settings → Cellular/Mobile → Add eSIM → scan the QR code, over your home Wi-Fi. Works on iPhone XS and later, recent Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel models, and most handsets from 2020 onwards. Installing is not the same as activating: leave the line switched off until you arrive.
Register your handset if you are staying a while
FCDO advice says to register your phone's IMEI through the Central Equipment Identity Register official portal for longer stays, or the device will be blocked from local networks. Find your IMEI now and write it down: Settings → About.
Prepare for having no signal at all
Download offline maps for your whole route. Save addresses, embassy contacts, insurance numbers and your booking references somewhere that does not need a connection. Tell someone at home your route and when you expect to be reachable again.
On arrival, switch the line on and enable data roaming
Turn on data roaming for the travel line specifically. Give it a minute or two to register on a network. If nothing happens, work through the troubleshooting section below.
What Connectivity Costs in Myanmar
We are not going to print invented figures here. The previous version of this page quoted specific roaming bills and specific eSIM prices that we could not source, for plans that do not exist. What follows is the shape of the decision, with the actual numbers left where you can verify them.
Roaming on your home contract
Almost always the most expensive option, and the one people end up on by accident. Myanmar sits in the outermost zone of most operators' tariffs. Whether you are billed per megabyte or offered a daily pass, the daily pass rate for a country like this is normally several times what a local data plan costs for the whole trip.
Check it yourself: look up "Myanmar" by name on your own operator's tariff page before you fly, not "rest of world" or "zone 4". If you do nothing else from this page, do that.
A local SIM bought in Myanmar
The cheapest data per gigabyte, comfortably. The costs that do not appear on the price tag are the registration process, the opening hours, and the fact that you will be doing it on your first day with luggage. If you are staying more than a few days and volume matters, this is usually the rational choice.
A travel eSIM
Priced between the two, and bought for convenience rather than for value per gigabyte. For Myanmar specifically this is currently a theoretical comparison, because we do not have a plan to sell you. The live pricing block above is the only price on this page we will stand behind.
And the cost nobody prices: during a shutdown, none of the three options above is worth anything. That is the real budgeting question for Myanmar, and it is answered with planning rather than with money.
How Much Data Do You Actually Need?
These are budgets built from ordinary app consumption rates. The previous version of this section attributed them to forum posts we could not locate, so the quotes are gone and the arithmetic stays.
Light use: roughly 3-6 GB over one to two weeks
- • Maps and navigation: ~150 MB/day
- • Messaging and email: ~60 MB/day
- • Translation and lookups: ~50 MB/day
- • A few photos sent home: ~100 MB/day
- Roughly 350 MB/day, and less on the days you are outside coverage
Moderate use: roughly 8-15 GB over two weeks
- • Navigation and translation: ~300 MB/day
- • Regular photo uploads: ~400 MB/day
- • A video call home most days: ~300 MB/day
- • General browsing: ~200 MB/day
- Roughly 1.2 GB/day on the days you have a usable connection
Heavy use: 20 GB and upwards
- • Video uploads: ~1-2 GB/day
- • Video calls for work: ~500 MB-1.5 GB per hour
- • Short-form video posting: ~800 MB/day
- • Navigation and everything else: ~500 MB/day
- Upload speed is usually the constraint here, not the allowance
Myanmar-specific adjustments
- • Offline first: download maps, translation packs and reading before you travel. It saves data and it covers the outages
- • Power, not data, is often the limit: outages are routine. A power bank is as useful as another gigabyte
- • Days with no signal cost nothing: time in the uplands and border areas will not touch your allowance, because there is often nothing to connect to
- • If a VPN is part of your setup: budget 20-30% on top of everything above for the overhead alone, and read the advisory section about the legal position first
When It Does Not Work
The first question in Myanmar is not "what did I do wrong". It is "is the network running". Work through that first.
❌ No service at all, and nobody around you has service either
What is probably happening:
This is what a shutdown looks like from the inside. If local people cannot get online either, the problem is not your phone and not your plan.
What to do:
- 1. Ask at your accommodation whether service is down locally. They will know
- 2. Fall back on whatever offline plan you agreed before you travelled
- 3. Do not burn your battery cycling airplane mode for hours. Conserve it
- 4. Service usually returns; in some townships it has not for a long time
⚠️ No service, but other people around you are online
Now it probably is your phone:
This is the ordinary case, and it is usually one of three things.
In order:
- 1. Settings → Cellular → your travel line → turn Data Roaming ON. This is the single most common cause anywhere in the world
- 2. Check the travel line is actually the one selected for cellular data, not just installed
- 3. Airplane mode on for 30 seconds, then off. Give it a full minute to re-register
- 4. Still nothing after ten minutes? Restart the handset
📵 The handset itself has been blocked
A Myanmar-specific cause:
FCDO advice records that for longer stays an unregistered handset IMEI is automatically blocked from local networks.
What it looks like and what to do:
Every SIM you try fails, including a freshly bought local one, while the same SIM works in someone else's phone. Register the IMEI through the Central Equipment Identity Register official portal. This is a device registration, not a plan problem, and no eSIM provider can fix it for you.
📱 Connected, but a specific app will not load
Probably not a fault:
FCDO advice records that services including Facebook and WhatsApp are blocked in Myanmar. Everything else loading while one app does not is the expected symptom.
What this page will and will not tell you:
The useful preparation is to agree a fallback channel with the people who need to reach you before you travel, and to not build your trip on one app. We are not going to publish guidance on circumventing state controls, and given the Cybersecurity Law described in the advisory section, you should not take that advice casually from anyone.
🔄 Slow, but working
Usually capacity, sometimes distance:
Congested cells in busy areas, and thin coverage away from the towns, both produce the same experience.
What actually helps:
- • Move the big transfers to accommodation Wi-Fi and keep mobile data for the small stuff
- • Manual network selection only helps if your plan is entitled to more than one network. Most travel plans are declared against a single operator, and forcing a network you cannot use leaves you with nothing
- • Off-peak hours are genuinely better in the cities
- • Outside the towns, accept it. There is no setting that adds a mast
The Four Networks, and What Our Data Says
We are deliberately not publishing coverage percentages. The previous version of this page showed progress bars reading 90%, 80% and 75% that had no source behind them. Here is what we can actually stand behind.
MPT
Myanma Posts and Telecommunications, the state-linked incumbent and the former monopoly. It has the longest-established network footprint in the country, which is why it tends to be the operator reaching places the others do not. It has been supported commercially since 2014 by KDDI Summit Global Myanmar, a KDDI and Sumitomo joint venture, though Sumitomo announced on 28 April 2025 that the scope of that support was being reduced. Network codes 414-00, 414-01, 414-02 and 414-04. Every Myanmar package in our own historical catalogue was declared against MPT.
ATOM
Formerly Telenor Myanmar. Telenor sold the unit into the Investcom joint venture, with the transfer completing in March 2022, and it was rebranded ATOM on 8 June 2022. Investcom is majority-held by the local group Shwe Byain Phyu, which Canada sanctioned in October 2023, with M1 Group holding the minority. Network code 414-06 — which is exactly the row our own coverage data still records under the old Telenor name. That is a stale label on our side, not a second operator.
U9
Formerly Ooredoo Myanmar. Ooredoo Group agreed the sale to Singapore-registered Nine Communications on 7 September 2022 at an enterprise value of USD 576 million, and the business was rebranded U9 on 20 September 2025. Around nine million subscribers. Network code 414-05. It is no longer a Qatari operator, whatever older guides say, and its ultimate ownership is described by independent researchers as opaque.
Mytel
The newest of the four, selling since 2018. Its shareholders include Viettel, run by Vietnam's Ministry of National Defence, and Star High Public Company, associated with the Myanmar military's Myanmar Economic Corporation. Viettel holds 49% and Star High 28%. The US Department of Commerce sanctioned it in January 2025. Network code 414-09. Stated plainly because some travellers and organisations choose on this basis.
What we found in our own coverage data
- • Our own network table holds exactly one Myanmar row, and it hangs off a global pay-as-you-go product rather than any Myanmar country plan — and it is still labelled with the old Telenor name
- • Every Myanmar package from our card-based supplier — 37 of them, all on MPT — is currently inactive
- • Another upstream supplier's coverage table has no Myanmar rows at all
- • No active regional or global package in our catalogue lists Myanmar among its covered countries
Our own internal region lists do file Myanmar under "Asia", but that is display data for grouping country pages, not a statement of what any package covers. We checked the packages themselves, and none of them cover Myanmar.
Where coverage is densest
- Yangon - the largest city and commercial centre
- Mandalay - the second city
- Naypyidaw - the capital
- The central corridor between them
- Established tourism centres such as Bagan and Nyaungshwe
- Mawlamyine and the larger southern towns
Where to expect little or nothing
- Upland and border areas generally
- Trekking routes away from the towns
- On the water at Inle Lake, away from the shore
- Conflict-affected townships, where service is suspended
- Parts of upper Sagaing, cut off for years at a time
- Anywhere during a shutdown, including the cities
One more thing worth knowing about infrastructure. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake of 28 March 2025 — the strongest in the country's recorded history — ruptured hundreds of kilometres of the Sagaing Fault and caused severe damage in Sagaing, Mandalay and surrounding areas, including to communications and electrical infrastructure. Access Now records that the shutdowns already in force severely hampered emergency and rescue efforts afterwards, across at least 67 townships. A natural disaster and a deliberate shutdown regime compounded each other. Recovery in a country still in conflict is slow, and that is part of the backdrop to any coverage claim about central Myanmar.
Data Recommendations by Trip Type
How much data these trips actually use
These are data budgets, not traveller testimonials. Each one is built from ordinary app consumption rates, so you can size a plan against the way you actually use a phone. We have deliberately not attached names, quotes or prices to them: we do not currently sell a Myanmar plan, and inventing a customer to quote a price at you would be worse than saying so.
Short trip on the main circuit
Yangon, Bagan and Inle Lake, staying in towns
Typical route:
Yangon → Bagan → Nyaungshwe (Inle Lake)
Where the data goes
Maps and navigation between sites
Messaging, email, a few photos sent home
Translation, lookups, booking confirmations
A longer video call
Worth knowing
- →Most guesthouses and hotels on this circuit have Wi-Fi; treat mobile data as the thing that works between them
- →Download offline maps for the whole route before you go — it saves data and covers the gaps
- →Coverage in the towns is usually workable; it thins out quickly once you leave them
How this maps to a plan
A small country plan would fit this profile — if one is available when you travel. Check the live pricing block above.
The caveat
Budget above the range rather than at its edge. Running out mid-trip in Myanmar is harder to fix than elsewhere.
Photography-heavy trip
Uploading images most evenings
Typical route:
Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay, Inle Lake
Where the data goes
Compressed photo uploads
Maps, translation, messaging
Short video clips
Worth knowing
- →Upload over guesthouse Wi-Fi where it is good enough, and keep mobile data for the days it is not
- →Full-resolution files will blow through any of these numbers — export at a sensible size before sending
- →Photography rules vary by site and by moment. Ask before photographing people, military or government buildings, checkpoints or anything security-related
How this maps to a plan
This is the profile most likely to need a top-up partway through.
The caveat
Upload speeds are the constraint more often than the allowance.
Travelling with family
Several devices sharing one connection
Typical route:
Town-based, shorter hops
Where the data goes
Navigation and planning on the lead phone
Messaging and calls home across devices
Anything streamed on a second device
Worth knowing
- →Download films, shows and games onto the kids devices before the trip. Streaming is what empties an allowance
- →One phone as the hotspot is simpler than several separate lines, and easier to monitor
- →Power cuts are common. Carry a power bank: a flat phone and no coverage look identical
How this maps to a plan
Assume the hotspot phone carries everyone, and size for the whole group rather than one person.
The caveat
Set the streaming rules before you land, not after the allowance is gone.
Working remotely
Calls, cloud files and a VPN running most of the day
Typical route:
City base, occasional travel
Where the data goes
Video calls
Cloud documents, email, sync
VPN overhead on everything above
Worth knowing
- →This is the profile most exposed to a network interruption, and no data plan protects against one — see the connectivity section above
- →Agree with colleagues in advance what happens if you are uncontactable for a day or more
- →Keep work that matters saved locally rather than only in the cloud
How this maps to a plan
A country plan is unlikely to carry this on its own. Plan around fixed connections and treat mobile data as the fallback.
The caveat
Do not build a deadline around connectivity here that you would not build around it at home.
Low-usage travel
Navigation, messaging and staying reachable
Typical route:
Mixed, including time outside the towns
Where the data goes
Messaging and occasional email
Maps, mostly offline, with occasional live lookups
Little to nothing, because there is often no signal
Worth knowing
- →Time spent outside the towns naturally costs almost nothing, because there is frequently no coverage to use
- →Keep a copy of your embassy contact details, insurance number and accommodation addresses saved offline
- →Tell someone at home your route and when you expect to be back in signal
How this maps to a plan
The smallest available plan usually covers this comfortably.
The caveat
Low usage is not the same as low risk. Being uncontactable for stretches is normal here; plan for it.
Business or organisational travel
Meetings, documents and a fixed schedule
Typical route:
Yangon or Naypyidaw, mostly indoors
Where the data goes
Email and document attachments
Calls and messaging
A video meeting joined on mobile data
Worth knowing
- →Hotel and office Wi-Fi usually carries the bulk of this; the mobile line is what keeps you reachable in between
- →Sanctions and compliance rules affect who can be paid and how. That is a question for your organisation, not a travel guide
- →Follow the security guidance your organisation gives you rather than a web page
How this maps to a plan
A small to mid-size plan, if one is available.
The caveat
Build slack into the schedule. Connectivity here is not something to promise a client.
Typical app consumption
Rough daily rates:
What to expect from coverage:
The honest version: every figure above is a budgeting aid, not a promise. In Myanmar the binding constraint on your connection is usually not your allowance — it is whether the network in that township is running. Size your plan for the data you will use, and plan your trip for the days you will have no signal at all.
Quick sizing reference
About a week
3-6 GB for most people
Maps, messaging, a few uploads
Two weeks
6-15 GB depending on uploads
The upload habit decides the number
Longer stays or remote work
30 GB+, and expect to top up
Fixed connections should carry the load
Connectivity Around the Country
Read this alongside the advisory section. The UK FCDO advises against all travel to several of the regions people historically visited, and the picture changes quickly.
Yangon
Densest coverageThe largest city and the commercial centre, with the country's best-developed mobile coverage and all four operators present. Grab operates here, and needs a working data connection. Accommodation Wi-Fi is generally available, subject to the same power cuts as everything else.
What to expect:
- • Coverage throughout the built-up area
- • Congestion in busy places at busy times
- • Power cuts affecting Wi-Fi more than mobile
- • Shutdowns apply here too
Worth remembering:
- • A curfew is in force nationally
- • Do not photograph police or military
- • Blocked apps are blocked here as elsewhere
- • Carry a power bank
Bagan
Town good, plain patchyThe temple zone spans a wide area. Nyaung-U and New Bagan are ordinary towns with ordinary coverage; out on the plain, between the more distant monuments, it thins. Offline maps are the right preparation, not a better plan.
What to expect:
- • Reliable enough in the towns
- • Variable out on the plain
- • Weakest at the more remote monuments
Preparation:
- • Download the whole area offline
- • Pin what you want to see while you have signal
- • Carry water and a power bank, not just data
Inle Lake
Shore yes, water noNyaungshwe, the town at the northern end, is served. Out on the water and in the villages around the lake, coverage is inconsistent and in places absent. Note also that Shan State South is under an all-but-essential-travel advisory from the FCDO.
What to expect:
- • Usable in Nyaungshwe
- • Intermittent on the lake
- • Little in the outlying villages
Preparation:
- • Arrange boat trips from shore, where you have signal
- • Download maps before going out
- • Tell someone when you expect to be back
Mandalay
The second city, with good coverage in the urban area and Grab operating. Northern Mandalay Region is under an all-travel FCDO warning, and the city and surrounding region were among the areas worst hit by the March 2025 earthquake.
Naypyidaw
The purpose-built capital. Coverage in the administrative areas is good. This is a government city: be especially careful about photography and drones.
Coastal and beach areas
Resort areas are generally served, with hotel Wi-Fi as the main connection. Note that Rakhine State is under an FCDO advisory against all travel.
Upland and border areas
Minimal to no coverage, and most of these areas carry an FCDO advisory against all travel. Shan State North, Kachin, Chin, Kayah and Kayin are all on that list. Treat "no signal" as the default assumption, not the exception.
Frequently Asked Questions
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