Wikimedia goes to Burma

[thekohser]

What the heck were they "celebrating" on 7 November in Oslo?

More big lies by the lying liars who tell them, I guess!

[thekohser]

You know what I love on a Thursday afternoon?

I love when a Vice-Chairman of Wikimedia Norway tells Jimbo that his "Bright Line Rule" isn't workable, because Wikipedians are too lazy and too stupid to properly take suggestions from Talk pages to Article pages. I really get a thrill.

[Mancunium]

The WikiLove affair between Jimmy Wales and Telenor seems not to have survived Telenor's botched attempt to make loads of money in Burma while forcing Wikipedia down Burmese throats.

Wikipedia woes
The Foreigner, 9 December 2013 link

Wikipedia is by far the most used encyclopaedia in Norway, as elsewhere. The country also contributes significantly to Wikipedia, with now there are more than half a million Wikipedia articles in Norwegian, four in five in Bokmål, one in five in Nynorsk. Yet the prevailing WikiPeace in Norway was disrupted this past November. The WikiPeace disruption came about when Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales chastised Wikimedia Norway Vice Chairman Erlend Bjørtvedt on the Wikipedia User talk pages. He contended that Mr. Bjørtvedt, Vice President of Telenor Governmental Relations, acted improperly last June in editing the English language Wikipedia entry on Telenor. Mr. Bjørtvedt disagrees, saying his editing of the entry was limited to updating facts and figures to current ones.

In 29 November 2013 issue of Norwegian cultural weekly Morgenbladet, journalist Anders Firing Lunde pointed out the crux of the disruption lay in differing perceptions of conflict of interest. It was a comprehensive overview of the matter. [...] Telenor’s Mr.Bjørtvedt’s views reflect the realities of professional activities in a small country. ‘We (of Wikimedia Norway) are sustained by people writing about the organisations in which they are employed. They have first-hand knowledge. Without their contributions, the Norwegian Wikipedia would not be as comprehensive and updated an encyclopaedia as it is today,’ he is reported to have said. He appears not to have exact figures on how many contributors write about their workplaces, but knows that many are employed by companies, schools, museums, religious communities and universities. For example, greater parts of the Wikipedia entry on the University of Oslo were written by the staff of the university’s Communications Department. [...]

Norge versus Wales på Wikipedia
Morgenbladet, 29 November 2013 edition link

Google-translated from Norwegian: link

Norway vs Wales on Wikipedia
Norwegians Wikipedia articles about their own employer provokes founder Jimmy Wales.

Unproblematic: Wikimedia Norway and Public Affairs at Telenor Group, Erlend Bjørtvedt, has even written a large part of the Norwegian Wikipedia article about Telenor and thinks it's okay that employees write about the employer as long as they write objectively and tell who they are.

It Erlend has done is embarrassing errors and direct shameful, wrote Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, on his own talk page online encyclopaedia two weeks ago. By "Erlend" said Wales Erlend Bjørtvedt, government relations, Telenor and Deputy Wikimedia Norway, the organization that works to safeguard the Norwegian Wikipedia. On to Wales wrote a user named "Greg" a post about changes Bjørtvedt made in Telenor English Wikipedia article in June. Bjørtvedt updated two numbers that were outdated. "Greg" suggested Bjørtvedt was in a conflict of interest. Same Tonight "Greg" support from Wikipedia founder Wales: "The changes are highly problematic. I will immediately send him a worried email and invite him here to explain himself. I will ask him to promise that he would never do anything like this again", wrote Wales.

Completely normal

Than 90 percent of the Norwegian lexicon traffic on the Internet is Wikipedia. The website has become the standard for all possible information search. Always available. Almost always updated. In Norway it is quite common for people to create and edit articles about their own workplace, says Erlend Bjørtvedt. He thinks the changes Wales criticized him for lack drawbacks.

This entire article can be read in the print edition, or by creating a network subscription at Morgenbladet.no. You can buy Morgenbladet e-newspaper here for € 35.

Who is "Greg"?

[thekohser]

Who is "Greg"?

That's Jimbo's assumed name for the IPv6 who posts uncomfortable questions on his Talk page. He assumes that the IPv6 is me.

[Poetlister]

Who is "Greg"?

That's Jimbo's assumed name for the IPv6 who posts uncomfortable questions on his Talk page. He assumes that the IPv6 is me.

That's quite common on the Internet. People assume that only one person doesn't like them, so any anonymous vaguely hostile comment is attributed to that person.

[Mancunium]

Who is "Greg"?

That's Jimbo's assumed name for the IPv6 who posts uncomfortable questions on his Talk page. He assumes that the IPv6 is me.

So Jimbo must have shared "Greg's" name with Erlend Bjørtvedt, and Mr Bjørtvedt then shared the name with Morgenbladet-- which has made "Greg" a hero in Norway. It's amazing how one little IP question on Jimbo's Talk page can take Jimmy Wales from being "celebrated" in Norway on November 7th to the "Norway versus Wales" headline just three weeks later.

Some more realistic information here:

The roots of Myanmar’s internet woes
Myanmar Times, 1 December 2013 link

[...] Conspiracy theories about Myanmar’s stumbling internet abound, from suspicion over why problems seem to occur every year near the anniversary of the massive 8-8-88 democracy protests to claims that the government deliberately slows the internet down (but will juice a connection for the proper kickback). [...] Current internet penetration rates stand at a paltry 1 pc (though some argue that this doesn’t fully account for the number of usersat Internet cafes). The most common Internet connection is ADSL, slow but cheap to install because it runs on the widest spread telecommunications infrastructure in the country, the fixed telephone line. But only about 1 pc of the country has one.

Compounding the problem is the incredibly high cost for access and the incredibly low international bandwidth, 900 times less than neighboring Singapore and the lowest in the region. (Bandwidth describes the capacity to upload and download information over a period of time.) Citizens who are able to go online have an incredibly small capacity to download and upload information. The country’s primitive domestic telecommunications infrastructure goes hand in hand with the sparse international infrastructure to contribute to the problems plaguing the Myanmar Internet. [...] Many see mobile as a quick salve to the country’s connectivity woes. Doug Madory of Renesys points out that, “As a ‘last-mile’ technology, mobile services are far easier to deploy and maintain than running lines to every business and apartment.” But ultimately, whatever the “last mile” technology used to connect to the internet may be, both mobile and fixed broadband internet users are still reliant on the underlying international links connecting Myanmar to the worldwide Internet. More mobile users simply means more people will be logging onto a network that is already severely over capacity, unless, the new mobile companies are also increasing the long-haul fiber connections. [...]

Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas plans launch in Myanmar ‘later in 2014’ if new telecoms law is put in place
Telenor is waiting for Myanmar’s new telecoms laws and rules to be settled before it can plan one of the world’s last greenfield launches, CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas tells Alan Burkitt-Gray
Global Telecom Business, 3 December 2013 link

Telenor is ready to start work on building one of the last greenfield mobile telecoms operations in the world, as soon as the government authorities on Myanmar — still known as Burma by many — complete the final licensing negotiations. [...] The two companies do not yet have their licences, explains Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president and CEO of the Telenor group. “We are in the midst of getting the final touch to the telecoms law and the regulations. When that is done — hopefully by the end of this year — there is a roll out period until the launch can take place later in 2014,” he says. [...] Myanmar is making a difficult journey towards democracy, but he does not want to talk about the political challenges that Telenor may face. “We don’t get involved in the politics in that sense,” he says. “However it’s a very consistent message from today’s government in Myanmar that they want digital communications, mobile communications, to happen. It’s to that ambition we have responded.”

High costs of mobile hurting Telenor’s growth
The Daily Star, 4 December 2013 link

High cost of mobile data has been the main obstacle to widespread ownership in recent years in Telenor Asia’s markets: Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, and soon to be Myanmar, according to a study. However, tangible benefits of mobile data—applications and mobile internet—are available primarily on smartphone platforms, according to the study, which was not conducted in Bangladesh. Drawing on 38,000 people from 43 countries, the TNS global Mobile Life study uncovered major mobile connectivity differences in countries across emerging Asia. According to the study, alternatives to using mobile data, such as WiFi, are not widely available in most developing markets, and 60 to 80 percent of mobile owners do not use mobile data at all.

[thekohser]

So Jimbo must have shared "Greg's" name with Erlend Bjørtvedt, and Mr Bjørtvedt then shared the name with Morgenbladet...

It's not that mysterious at all. Jimbo publicly called the IPv6 "Greg" with his own words.

[Mancunium]

So Jimbo must have shared "Greg's" name with Erlend Bjørtvedt, and Mr Bjørtvedt then shared the name with Morgenbladet...

It's not that mysterious at all. Jimbo publicly called the IPv6 "Greg" with his own words.

Missed that. I suppose we should all be grateful to Mr I.P. Anonymous for ensuring that Norway never does anything as stupid as this: link,
which is being promoted by these people: link

[EricBarbour]

I suppose we should all be grateful to Mr I.P. Anonymous for ensuring that Norway never does anything as stupid as this: link,
which is being promoted by these people: link

Don't worry. That Facebook was started in November 2010 and flopped, badly.

[Mancunium]

Last we heard, Telenor and the Wikimedia Foundation were on the verge of bringing civilisation to Burma, Cherie Blair had thousands of Burmese SIM card salespeople working for her, Jimbo was signing smiley-face treaties with the King of Norway, and by the end of 2013 everyone in Burma would be editing Wikipedia. How's that going?

World Bank Pledges $2 Billion in Aid to Myanmar
Radio Free Asia, 27 January 2014 link

Civil society groups last week had raised concerns that the Washington-based World Bank’s support for another program in Myanmar expanding the country’s underdeveloped telecommunications sector could enable government censorship and surveillance. In a letter to the World Bank last week, 61 Myanmar-based and exile civil society groups raised concerns that the project, which is up for appraisal by the institution’s board next week, is ignoring fundamental issues of privacy and security. [...] The project will make the people of Myanmar vulnerable to violations of privacy and expression, censorship, and surveillance by the government [...] “The World Bank’s failure to promote privacy and security reform in Burma while expanding telecom capacity will enable the Burmese government to further engage in surveillance, censorship, and other abuses” [...] “The Burmese government will be further empowered to conduct censorship and surveillance and violate rights to privacy and expression if the government is given increased access to telecom capacity without being held accountable to enact a corresponding international-standard legal and regulatory framework”. [...] In planning the project, the World Bank has failed to support fundamental risk assessments, safeguards, and legal reforms that should come before telecom expansion, and to hold “meaningful” consultations with civil society groups [...]

Telecom investments threaten privacy rights in Burma
Democratic Voice of Burma, 3 February 2014 link

[...] Burma’s telecom sector cannot easily sustain responsible investment. A repressive legal framework that allows for security, privacy, and human rights abuses governs the sector. These laws permit the government to engage in surveillance, censorship, cyber-attacks, collect and store user data, and disrupt communications. The passing of the 2013 Telecommunications Act did not weaken the government’s ability to wield these abusive powers. [...] The World Bank is not prioritising public trust either. In mid-November 2013, the Bank attested that it had received “broad support” from civil society for the telecom project – before it had hosted a single civil society consultation. The project’s one consultation held on 28 November was scheduled mere days in advance and did not allow civil society participants enough time to review the lengthy project documents or translate them into ethnic languages. Civil society organisations reprimanded the Bank: it is unacceptable practice for the Bank to publish that its projects have received broad support from civil society without actually consulting with civil society.

Telenor faces electricity shortages, monsoons in Myanmar
Total Telecom, 10 February 2014 link

[...] Telenor on Monday provided further details on its upcoming launch in Myanmar, including some of the challenges it faces as it prepares to deploy a network covering around 55 million people. The population is 60 million but there is no precise number," said Petter Furberg, CEO of Telenor Myanmar, who explained that the government is in the process of carrying out a census. "[Current] population maps are very weak," he said. Once Telenor knows where to deploy a base station, it needs to physically get to the location, which represents a challenge too, depending on the time of year. According to Furberg, as many as half the country's roads outside urban centres are inaccessible during monsoon season, which starts around May and lasts until around October. Electricity is a problem as well, with just 25% of the population having access to a reliable power supply, which means Telenor will rely heavily on diesel back-up and solar power for its base stations, Furberg said. "There has been underinvestment over many years in infrastructure," he noted. In addition to an ongoing peace process between the Myanmar government and armed ethnic groups, the country also has a corruption problem, ranking 157th out of 177 countries listed in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. Perhaps the biggest challenge though, is an administrative one. "Our network rollout...is dependent upon local government to process building permits [for base stations] at a high rate," said Furberg. There is no up-to-date land registry, and authorities simply "lack the capability" to grant permission to build, he said, adding that this is the challenge most likely to delay Telenor's network deployment.

Will cheap SIM cards end the black market?
Myanmar Times, 16 February 2014 link

The black market in SIM cards appears to be on the brink of extinction. Now that Ooredoo and Telenor have been selected as operators to develop the nationwide mobile network, savvy customers are waiting to go legit. Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications has been distributing 35,000 cheap SIM cards via the state and regional governments since last April, and the K1500 SIM cards since last July. The scarcity has driven the unofficial rate as high as K180,000. “People don’t buy the K1500 CDMA SIM card because CDMA handsets are rare. We’re looking forward to the operators’ cards. The black market could disappear,” said tech enthusiast U Min Nin. “People with K500,000 and K200,000 SIM cards are trying to sell them. But the black market will disappear if the operators sell unlimited numbers,” added U Htet Lin Kyaw, general manager of Mr Fone Telecom Centre in South Okkalapa township.[...]

[Mancunium]

TELENOR : Myanmar given free access to the world's knowledge with Wikipedia Zero
4-traders, 7 November 2013 link

Fornebu, Norway, and San Francisco, California - 7 November 2013) -- Telenor Group and the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, today announced Myanmar as the latest country to be included in their existing agreement to bring Wikipedia Zero to Telenor customers in Asia and Europe. Telenor is supporting the country's ambition of connecting its 60 million people.

Jimbo Wales and Telenor honcho Jon Fredrik
Baksaas bringing free Wikipedia to Burma

"Is that a fact?" said the Lord.

The euphoric proclamation of this done deal, celebrated with lavish self-congratulation and the drinking of much champagne in Oslo, was followed by a tedious series of announcements of how soon Telenor would actually be granted a licence to plunder the country, peppered with occasional news about Burma's despotic and unstable governance, and its lack of any useful telecommunications infrastructure-- including an undersea cable which might allow it to make more than one phone call at a time to foreign countries. Never mind. Even Cherie Blair was ready with her plan to give Burma a SIM-card-based economy. So fret not. Just keep moving the actual implementation of Wikipedia Zero into the more and more distant future. Look: it's just started afresh. Again.

Telenor and Ooredoo to support Wiki Zero
Eleven Myanmar, 24 April 2014 link

Myanmar Wiki developers and the staff from Telenor are discussing to provide free mobile access to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia. The project is called Wiki Zero and competitors Ooredoo have also pledged their support. Organisers plan to train freelance developers to provide articles in Myanmar for free. “Telenor asked for 50 articles to in initiate. Their recommendations are systematic. Ooredoo requested for 100,000 articles before their sim-card on sale. We can give 100,000 articles they want though I’m afraid this would end up a perfunctory effort,” said Mayar, a developer for Myanmar Wiki. There are only 30,000 articles in the Myanmar version of Wikipedia due to complications using Unicode which supports the Myanmar alphabet system. Wikipedia is the largest online encyclopaedia which provides publicly generated multi-language content for free.

Free information. But none for you, Burma.

[Mancunium]

Telenor hosts Wikipedia forum at Dagon University
Eleven Myanmar, 15 July 2014 link

The first Myanmar Wikipedia Forum was held at Dagon University for the first time on July 14 attracting over 2,000 people, including students. The event was organised by Telenor Myanmar, together with Zaw Thet Aung with the aim of providing free wikipedia content for mobile phone users in local languages. “Myanmar Wikipedia has problems with Myanmar font and some are not readable. The English and Myanmar Wiki have different not only in language but also in contents. For example, we can’t find in Wiki written in English about the methods of how to make cigar and about Myanmar traditional fortune teller. But you can find them in Myanmar Wiki,” said Zaw Thet Aung. At present, Myanmar Wikipedia has about 31,990 articles, 47,124 editions, 3,730 photos, 23,153 users and five editors. Telenor plans to provide free mobile access to Wikipedia and as well as technical aid to add content to the Myanmar Wikipedia, according to Telenor CEO Peter Furberg.

Telenor has been making promises for quite some time. It promised that Wikipedia would be freely accessible by mobile phone by the end of 2013. Meanwhile, there is no indication that it has even provided its mobile service to the country.

[Mancunium]

Telenor supports Wikipedia Zero
Myanmar Times, 16 July 2014 link

Telenor is set to provide Wikipedia Zero integration on its mobile phone networks when it launches later this year, giving people in Myanmar free access to information from the open source platform. The Norwegian telco, one of the two international firms to be granted operating licences in last year's hotly-contested government tender, intends to launch SIM card distribution in September this year. The Wikipedia Zero program allows Wikipedia content (both English and Myanmar) will be accessible without data charges, from anywhere in Myanmar within range of the Telenor network. The open source platform will support Myanmar fonts, making information on a broad range of topics available on an unprecedented scale.

Bringing Wikipedia to Myanmar
Telenor Myanmar and Wikimedia hold first workshop
telenor.com, undated link

Telenor, the Wikimedia Foundation and the Myanmar Wikipedia community have held their first joint workshop in Myanmar in order to create local content for Wikipedia, the world’s biggest free encyclopaedia. [...] The workshop was held at Telenor House in Yangon on Saturday 21 June and was conducted by experienced Wikipedia contributors. The event gave new volunteers an introduction and training in how to identify content for translation, how to edit articles and also how to teach new members of the Wikipedia community. [...] Telenor Group signed a partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation in 2012 to offer Wikipedia free of data charges on mobile devices for Telenor customers in Asia and south-eastern Europe. The partnership agreement for Telenor Myanmar was signed in November 2013. “The Wikimedia Foundation imagines a world in which every single person has free access to the sum of human knowledge. Through Telenor’s support, the Myanmar people can now participate in multi-directional knowledge sharing on Wikipedia,” says Carolynne Schloeder, Head of Global Mobile Partnerships at the Wikimedia Foundation. “We thank Telenor for its support of the Myanmar Wikipedia community.”

Final frontier: Myanmar's new operators
Total Telecom, 15 July 2014 link

Four firms are gearing up to launch services in one of the last remaining untapped telecoms markets. The days of having to shell out the equivalent of a year’s salary for a SIM card in Myanmar are coming to an end, with four companies gearing up to launch new mobile services in the near future. International operators Telenor and Ooredoo, who emerged victorious from the 2013 licensing contest that attracted a staggering 92 entrants, are pressing ahead with network rollouts, while state-owned Myanmar Post and Telecommunications (MPT) and ISP Yatanarpon Teleport (YTP), a joint venture between the state and local companies, are in the latter stages of looking for partners to support their own mobile rollouts. Those partners will be international operators that failed to win licences last year.

Telephone and internet
go-myanmar.com, undated link

Telecommunications in Myanmar are several (large) steps behind most developed countries, and also lag behind neighbouring Southeast Asian countries: generally, you will find that systems are antiquated and access is patchy and slow. Only a small percentage of the population has access to a fixed telephone line, and internet and mobile penetration are equally low. However, the situation on the ground is changing almost every month and infrastructure is gradually improving. International roaming with a number of western mobile networks is now possible in Myanmar; the situation is changing fast, so it is best to check with your operator. Some roaming services are becoming available with Asian networks, including Thailand (AIS), Singapore (M1 and Singtel), Indonesia (Telkomsel) and Vietnam (Viettel). However, you may encounter a block on SMS text messaging even if you are able to make and receive calls. The mobile phone industry and availability of SIM cards in Myanmar are in a state of flux.

For many years, SIM cards were very expensive, but in April 2013 the price of a SIM card was reduced to K1,500 (US$1.70). However, these cards are currently only available to Myanmar citizens at normal outlets on a lottery basis. [...] As mobile phone usage can be expensive, using phone stands can be the simplest way to make local calls. These can be found on streets and in shops all around Myanmar, and local calls should cost around K100 (15 cents) per minute. International calls are significantly more expensive (over $5 per minute) and can only reliably be made from hotels; only some call stands will allow international calls. Be careful, as you may be charged for calls that fail to connect. It should be noted that many businesses in Myanmar have several phone numbers, as calls sometimes don’t connect and lines can go dead.

Telecommunications_in_Burma (T-H-L)

All communications in Burma are controlled by the government. Installation of telephones and the cost of calling are prohibitively expensive for most people. To call overseas for two minutes would cost more than most earn in a month. [...]
Telephone system:
meets minimum requirements for local and intercity service for business and government
domestic: system barely capable of providing basic service; cellular phone system is grossly underdeveloped with a subscribership base of less than 1 per 100 persons.
Internet:
According to MPT's official statistics as of July 2010, the country had over 400,000 Internet users (0.8% of the population) with the vast majority of the users located in the two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay.[9] Most of the people use the internet with the Mobile Data(Cellular Data) Edited 2014

On 7 November 2013, during his all-expenses-paid vacation in Norway, Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales
visited Telenor's headquarters in Oslo to give free access to Wikipedia to 60 million grateful people in Burma.

[thekohser]

Jimbo's signing that while wearing his third wedding band -- how stylish!

[Mancunium]

TELENOR : Myanmar given free access to the world's knowledge with Wikipedia Zero
4-traders, 7 November 2013 linkhttp://www.4-traders.com/TELENOR-449664 ... -17438510/[/link]

(Fornebu, Norway, and San Francisco, California - 7 November 2013) -- Telenor Group and the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, today announced Myanmar as the latest country to be included in their existing agreement to bring Wikipedia Zero to Telenor customers in Asia and Europe. Telenor is supporting the country's ambition of connecting its 60 million people. Through this agreement, Telenor's future subscribers in Myanmar will be able to access Wikipedia's vast knowledge base free of mobile data traffic charges when Telenor begins services in the country. [...] The extension of this partnership was celebrated today in Oslo when Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, met with Jon Fredrik Baksaas and Rolv-Erik Spilling, Head of Telenor Digital to participate in an event announcing the expansion of service.

Telenor Myanmar launches in Yangon following delay
Developing Telecoms, 28 October 2014 linkhttp://www.developingtelecoms.com/tech/ ... delay.html[/link]

[...] The operator claims to have provided one million SIM cards in the city of 2.5 million people following just one day of service. The Yangon launch was delayed for various reasons, including the difficulty of deploying during the rainy season and the lengthy approval processes for cell towers. Telenor has been offering services in the second-largest city of Mandalay since 27th September, then launched in Nay Pyi Taw roughly a week later. Telenor Myanmar CEO Petter Furberg claimed that the operator had already released 1 million SIM cards in these two cities before the 1 million issued in Yangon. He stated: “Our next step is to start expanding our network into the rural areas to reach the mass market of this vast greenfield.” The operator is obliged to provide coverage across 90% of Myanmar within the next five years. SIMs are available for MMK1,500 ($1.50) and airtime top-up cards can be purchased at the same points of sale. Pay as you go internet is also available, offering limited free access to Facebook and Wikipedia.

Telenor partners with Opera in Myanmar to help relieve bandwidth overload
As demand for bandwidth increase, carriers in Myanmar are looking toward third-party solutions such as Opera to help relieve traffic congestion.
by Michael Tan, CNET, 31 October 2014 linkhttp://www.cnet.com/news/telenor-partne ... -overload/[/link]

[...] With one million SIM cards being sold per month in Myanmar, bandwidth requirements have so far surpassed what the carriers have expected. Despite already having rapid infrastructure building plans in place, carriers are being forced to deploy network resources more aggressively. Both new Myanmar telcos, Ooredoo and Telenor, are facing severe bandwidth saturation during peak usage hours, and Telenor even had to delay its launch in Myanmar's biggest city by a few weeks just to deploy more network resources. In the meantime, Telenor is drawing on Opera's technological prowess to reduce the bandwidth crunch by offering the Opera Mini browser to its users with their phones. [...] The catch is that interactive pages that use device-side processing like Javascript do not work well, but many larger websites including Facebook, Wikipedia and Google have special portals, which work well with Opera Mini. Telenor Myanmar has signed on to the Facebook Zero and Wikipedia Zero initiatives, allowing Telenor users to have unlimited free access to these sites. While subscribers of other mobile networks like Ooredoo and MPT can use Opera Mini's compression technology, they may not be able to access Facebook Zero and Wikipedia Zero for free. [...]

Telenor Brings Zero-Rated Wikipedia and Facebook Access via Opera Mini to Myanmar
PCC Mobile Broadband, 2 November 2014 linkhttp://www.policychargingcontrol.com/29 ... to-myanmar[/link]

Telenor and Opera Software have announced their partnership to bring more cost effective mobile internet experience for their customers in Myanmar. The partnership enables Telenor Myanmar's customers to access faster and more affordable internet from their mobile devices via the Opera Mini browser, where they can access the local relevant content, free Wikipedia and Facebook Zero with just one click. All Telenor subscribers can now download the Opera Mini browser for free from both m.opera.com and Telenor’s mobile portal. [...]

[Mancunium]

Spark of knowledge starts with Wikipedia
by Catherine Trautwien, Myanmar Times, 3 November 2014 linkhttp://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/busine ... pedia.html[/link]

Article contains everything there is to know about Myanmar Wikipedia. A sample:

[...] As Anna Koval, manager of the Wikipedia Education Program at the Wikimedia Foundaton, said at Ooredoo’s Yangon Connected Women’s Conference [...] “It only takes one match to burn down a forest and one tree can make a million matches.” [...]

[...] At a recent training at Yangon’s Strategy First Institute, the Wikimedia Foundation’s director of global partnerships Carolynne Schloeder became emotional when speaking about the Wikipedians' reasons for dedicated editing. “You’re going to get tears in my eyes,” she said. [...]

[...] Sometimes the term “ethnic armed force” gets rebranded as “rebels” – a sign that military people have contributed to the page, according to Ko Zaw Thet Aung. [...]

[...] Though 33,549 articles is a start, more people need to provide kindling for information to spread like wildfire in Myanmar.

[thekohser]

Uninor is trying the non-Net Neutral "free crack" "get addicted now, pay later" routine. Indians could get hooked on April Fool's Day, appropriately -- but only for three months... then Uninor will take your Indian money for using Wikipedia, just like any other website.

[thekohser]

The WikiLove affair between Jimmy Wales and Telenor...

Today:

"I'm excited to be participating in this year's Telenor Youth Forum. The youth are the future, mobile is the future. The dream of universal access to education is in our grasp," says Wales.