Hi

I am currently in Mawlamyine and stayed in Yangon before. I equipped an iPhone 4 and 5 with telenor simcards (locals told me it’s the best carrier for internet).

I can not activate a hotspot with both of the phones, but it works for what’s app and such things. I am now trying to set up my USB dongle with a simcard…

The Wifis were enough for mails and trello so far, but not much more “real” working.

I just finished two weeks there. Upon arrival at Yangon Airport, I spent 1500 kyat for a SIM card, and another 12k kyat for 2gb of data. That’s just under $11 USD total.

Bring crisp hundreds - get them from the KTB branch (I think… purple signage) inside the BKK international terminal, and change to kyat right at Yangon airport. Kyat gets you a better deal and will be accepted without complaint even if they’re falling apart. Change them back at the airport on your way out.

Schwab worked at ATMs, though not until I called and re-added a travel notification. I found CC to rarely be accepted, and if accepted, with a 5% fee. Stayed in my wallet.

Wifi is painfully slow at the (mostly) 3-star hotels I stayed at in Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay, Hsipaw and Inle. Under 200kbps. I only used it overnight for larger downloaded and app updates.
One UK entrepreneur running an unscale pub in Nyaung Shwe told me he planned to get satellite in order to have decent bandwidth.

Agreed - I seemed to be blocked by the carrier for using my phone as a hotspot on iOS. FaceTime audio was reliable, but video quickly overwhelmed the mobile network.

Had 3G in all the cities, on top of temples in Bagan, for most of the train from Mandalay to Hsipaw, and even outside a monastery in a mountain village above Inle.

Hilariously, speedtests I ran throughout the country were always under 2Mbps and usually under 1Mbps… except at the aforementioned monastery - 7.8 up and 2.36 down!

Enjoy - I found it to be an awesome adventure and can’t wait to return.

I was there in November and was impressed at how good it was!
I bought a Sim card at Yangon airport for sub $10. It worked great in the city and on the road up to NayPyiDaw and on to Inle Lake with decent coverage pretty much all the way. Mandalay was fine too as was the trip down the river to Bagan. Around Bagan it was not that good. Overall it was great. I used it as a hot spot was remotely logging in to servers in the UK and even streaming video much to my surprise! This was all on an Samsung (Android phone). For some reason the friends I travelled with could not set up their iPhones to use as a hotspot.

Thanks Borowis, your tips are very helpful.

OpenSignal.com indicates a very good coverage in Yangon, Naypyitaw & Mandalay. Outside of these cities, things seem to be rather “different”.

prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Myanmar mentions:

Only go to Myanmar if you can live with erratic and often painfully slow internet access. This is true to Wi-Fi as well as to all three mobile operators especially on the countryside. Both of the newcomers sold millions of SIM cards each in only a few months. First, they were so high in demand in 2014 that black-market prices skyrocketed. But in 2015 you get them on every street corner where you have coverage for the regular price.

MPT has again lowered prices but has still unreliable and slow internet access. It gives the best coverage throughout the country on 2G 900 Mhz and 3G 2100 Mhz and simultaneously on an incompatible CDMA network. Ooredoo only builds up a 3G network mostly on 900 Mhz with no fall back to 2G. Telenor is said to be the most reliable for data where it has coverage on 2G 900 Mhz and especially on 3G 2100 Mhz. A fourth license to Vietnam-backed Vietel Group was given out recently, but they haven’t started yet.

But it still does not tell me how possible a Skype call without video would be, nor provides any speedtest data (from one of these cities mentioned above).

Any feedback regarding recent personal experience would be very appreciated.

Never been there, but want to add my 2 cents, maybe you will find that useful:

• http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Myanmar
• http://opensignal.com/ -> search Myanmar -> Advanced view. I find there speed numbers more or less representative. Sometimes, reality is better.