With phone lines, mobile data services and Wi-Fi networks down across Kachin State, families are finding it difficult to send money to their children studying abroad.

The mobile and internet outages in Kachin State began on July 21 and have now lasted for over two weeks. A concerned student studying abroad told KNG that those studying abroad are facing financial difficulties because they are completely cut off from their families.

“If these network outages continue, we may not be able to pay our school fees on time. This could lead to a situation so bad that we may have to drop out of school,” he lamented.

The network outages in Kachin State have brought all mobile banking services and online money transfer systems to a halt. As a result, families are unable to send money to their students studying abroad, leaving them in serious financial difficulties.

A Kachin student studying economics in Bangkok, Thailand, also said he was having trouble paying his rent and food because he did not receive any money from home.

“I usually receive funds transferred from home using KPay (a popular mobile banking app). Now that internet access is disrupted across Kachin State, I cannot receive money from home. I have already paid school fees for the first semester, so I am a little relieved at the moment. However, the money I have left for rent and buying food is only enough for this month. If the internet outage continues, I will have to worry about expenses afterward,” he told KNG.

Currently, some foreign students from Kachin State are desperately looking for short-term solutions to overcome their impending financial constraints, while others are looking for part-time jobs and scholarship opportunities to get through this turbulent time.

Meanwhile, military tension remains throughout Kachin State, and internet outages and other problems that could disrupt families’ financial resources for foreign students can occur at any time. For this reason, some students are considering a contingency plan: dropping out of school and looking for a job in their home country.

On July 29, it was reported that the phone and internet outages that began on July 21 have been restored in some locations in Myitkyina City and Waingmaw Town in Kachin State. However, connectivity has only been restored in some downtown areas and near some government buildings. The rest of Kachin State continues to struggle with a complete internet outage.

When KNG contacted the junta-appointed chief minister of Kachin State, U Khet Htein Nan, to ask about the reasons for the severe phone and internet outages, he replied that the problem was due to damaged cable lines in the Sagaing region bordering Kachin State.

“The main problem is broken cables in Sagaing. Repair work to restore telephone lines has been completed in some downtown areas,” said U Khet Htein Nan.

He did not provide any further details as to why the cables were damaged.

Since the coup, Kachin State has experienced frequent and widespread telephone and internet outages. Some political analysts suspect that this latest blackout may have been deliberately caused by the junta due to the military situation in the region.

According to Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net report published in October 2023, Myanmar is the second worst country in the world in terms of internet freedom, surpassed only by China.