Myanmar military lays landmines around telecom towers

According to Myanmar Now, the Myanmar military has laid landmines at telecommunications towers owned by or leased to mobile operators, including Telenor.

Many striking Mytel employees informed that the junta has been laying “protective landmines” at many tower sites in recent months. Mytel is a telecoms company jointly owned by the Myanmar military.

According to the engineers who abandoned their posts after the February 1 coup, the anti-junta People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) utilized bombs and homemade explosive devices to target Mytel towers due to its military ties.

Meanwhile, Telenor has implemented a tower security scheme that entails sending text message alerts to Telenor subscribers who reside near risky towers, advising them to keep away from telecoms infrastructure. Physical warning signs have been displayed on mined towers and are no longer being serviced by Telenor.

According to a Telenor spokesperson, most mined towers are owned by tower companies who lease them to Telenor and other operators. The tower owners are responsible for ensuring security in these cases. Big News Network