Low-cost SIM cards sold for 3 times more in the black market

From Wednesday, authorities put these low-cost SIM cards on the market in Yangon and started selling them through lucky draws in other townships. 

The government will be selling 350,000 of these cheap SIM cards per month for the next three months.

News that these SIM cards can only be used with handsets imported by the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) is not true, Ko Ko Aung, director of Lugyimin Mobile Phones and Accessories sales centre told the press on Tuesday. 

“I already tested the SIM cards with all CDMA 800Mhz handsets at my shop and they work. The connection, however, depends on the location of the phone and the tower,” Ko Ko Aung said.

MEC has been distributing MEC-brand handsets for more than 30,000 kyat (Bt980). 

MEC also produces top-up cards for local and overseas calls, which are available at all top-up card dealers. 

The biggest problem for mobile-phone users in Myanmar is that SIM cards are not produced and distributed by Myanmar Posts and Telecommunication (MPT), and instead sold by the regional government. Hence, users do not know how to go about applying for a new one if their existing SIM card is lost or damaged. 

“Also in coming months, CDMA 800MHz cards will be sold,” chief engineer Htay Win said.

As per the programme, up to a million of these CDMA 800MHz mobile SIM cards will be sold over three months.

In fact, GSM SIM cards are more widely used internationally than CDMA ones and only a few countries use CDMA SIM cards, observers said.