Originally Posted by
acunningham
Can anyone who's been there comment on what internet access and mobile phones are like? I'm considering visiting next year, but my business is internet based so connectivity with the outside world is important.
Most hotels should have wi-fi, but the speed may not be great. It is fine for e-mail, but not always for heavy use. Yangon suffers from constant rolling blackouts due to a terribly outdated power grid. While hotels will usually have generators which will kick on, there will be temporary disruptions. Outside of Yangon, the power grid is much worse, and good luck with internet. Most of the mobile phones there operate on a very strange band, something in the 700's iirc. I know my 4 band world phone with a Thai SIM card could not connect to their network at all. You can rent/buy a phone/SIM there, but not sure about how worthwhile it would be as far as network quality. Overall, it is still a very impoverished country, and the military gov't still has a lot of control over daily life. I really enjoyed it as a chance to disconnect and see a different way of life, but not to connect and live in luxury.