Jury Chai – Internet users in Burma who would like to open Gmail e-mail accounts must pay a fee to create new accounts, according to several service users.
“Some Internet cafés sell the services for new internet users, but even then sometimes it is not possible to create a new account because of slow connections,” said an Internet user in Rangoon.
The fee charged to create a new Gmail account is 1,000 to 5,000 kyat, even though Gmail is a free service. New accounts created in Burma cannot be used immediately. Service users have to wait a few days before they are able to begin using Gmail.
According to an anonymous Burmese Internet technician, new accounts are difficult to create in Burma due to the requirement that messages must be sent to a GSM phone in Burma, from which Google asks for a verification code. Most users have to give a relative’s phone number in other countries.
A Rangoon Internet shop owner said, “Recently a new user requested me to help him create a new account, but it was impossible for me to complete the process through to the end”.
Although it is difficult to create new accounts in Burma, the number of Burmese online is increasing among youths, said the shop owner.
The Internet café staff said that new users at some shops must pay 7,000 to 9,000 kyat to use an account that is able to get around government censorship.
However, many are not still able to use the accounts even after they pay money to create them.
According to a government newspaper on 8 March, U Thein Zaw, the Minister of Telecommunications, Post & Telegraphs, stated the number of Internet users in Burma is around 380,000 for the entire country, which is less than one percent of the population, one of the lowest figures in the world.
