appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Su Mon Thazin Aung

SpaceX discontinued its Global Roam service for existing customers as of Monday. The US company offered no specific reason beyond regulatory compliance, but few would question the move, given the need to clamp down on the increasing number of cybercrime networks that tap into its Starlink services globally.
Yet in Myanmar, the Starlink move is a double-edged sword.
The country’s civil conflict has cut many people off from conventional digital communications. For conflict-affected communities, SpaceX’s decision could mean being disconnected from the internet.
The move thus risks reinforcing the long-standing strategy of Myanmar’s military – and the current military-backed regime – governing through information control and the disruption of humanitarian services. The regime’s head recently noted that Starlink connections were being used by the online scam industry.
What he failed to mention was that many parts of Myanmar, including those held by anti-government forces, rely on Starlink to access the internet. Nearly 40 per cent of Myanmar’s townships now experience intermittent or total internet shutdowns every month.

Since the 2021 coup, the military has weaponised internet access, imposing mobile-network shutdowns and internet blackouts in conflict-ridden areas across the country. As the ensuing civil war has damaged telecommunications infrastructure, communities have been further isolated.
An estimated 13 million people – nearly a quarter of Myanmar’s population – rely on Starlink for digital access because no viable alternative exists in conflict zones.
Across much of Sagaing, Kachin, Karenni, Chin and other contested regions, healthcare providers, community-based organisations, schools and local administrative bodies depend on Starlink terminals to coordinate emergency medical referrals, organise humanitarian relief, deliver remote education and issue security warnings.
At least 6,000 schools run by local authorities and communities mostly operate online due to the ongoing civil conflict. Thousands of healthcare facilities in mixed-control and conflict areas also rely heavily on Starlink technology for daily coordination and operations.
For the relatively low price of around US$120 per month, one terminal can accommodate about 100 users. Most are humanitarian or community-based organisations and residents in conflict zones.

Myanmar is not officially licensed for Starlink operations. Formal regulatory approval would be required from the Myanmar authorities – something the military is not inclined to do, given Starlink’s use by both scam centres and opposition groups. Many terminals have reportedly been registered through other countries. All of which means the end of Global Roam has huge implications for the millions who depend on the roaming satellite service for emergency healthcare support, education and essential digital connectivity.
When the internet goes dark in a conflict zone, fear spreads faster than facts. Violence and human rights abuses become harder to document, verify, investigate and hold to account. In locations such as Saw township, where communities have faced military air strikes and bombing in recent months, the absence of reliable information has allowed rumours to spread rapidly. Villagers have fled in panic, sometimes towards danger. Satellite internet access enabled emergency medical teams and humanitarian workers to reach victims and provide immediate first-line support.
With Global Roam’s discontinuation and stricter guidelines for international use across other Roam tiers, local communities and humanitarian organisations in Myanmar are looking for alternatives.
A community worker in Myanmar’s dry zone said locally built mesh or radio networks could offer a temporary means of communication, but no alternative could match Global Roam’s affordability, portability, ease of deployment or scale.
Other options exist, in theory, such as geostationary-orbit satellites or an upgrade to Starlink’s Global Priority tier. But in practice, they are not realistic. High prices and limits on data usage put them out of reach for financially struggling local community organisations and people living in conflict zones.
There is another dimension here. Since 2025, Starlink has reportedly been under investigation by the US Congress for providing internet access to scam centres in Myanmar. This led to the shutdown of more than 2,500 terminals seemingly associated with scam compounds. Even before the recent policy change, users in Karenni (Kayah), Rakhine and parts of Sagaing had experienced Starlink access blockages as a result of crackdowns on scam operations.

Over the past five years, cybercrime syndicates along the Thai-Myanmar border have proliferated, using satellite internet to evade law enforcement and sustain billion-dollar scam networks targeting victims worldwide, despite crackdowns. SpaceX’s recent policy change shows that the company and US lawmakers are stepping up their response to criminal enterprises exploiting satellite technology.
But scam syndicates are not ordinary users. Local insiders anticipate that groups with the financial resources have already shifted to higher-priced connectivity options, including Starlink’s more expensive global plans, or switched to in-country internet services after relocating from the border areas to the inland Myanmar.
This is not the first time they have survived crackdowns. In 2025, China teamed up with the Thai and Lao authorities to launch a massive multinational operation against cross-border scam networks in the Thai-Myanmar border area.
Thailand has also cut off scam centres from landline internet, fuel and electricity. Last year, Starlink shut down devices used by the scam compounds. Yet the criminals adapted, shifting from industrial-scale operations to smaller ones, moving inland and changing their targets from Chinese nationals to Americans. These centres grew exponentially in 2025 and 2026.

More than 300 civil society organisations operating in Myanmar have urged the US government, SpaceX and the international community to consider establishing a “targeted restrictive mechanism” that denies scam centres access to the internet while preserving civilian connectivity.
Myanmar’s tech dependency dilemma represents a stark reality: the scam economy and humanitarian services both require internet access, but cutting off one could impose a far heavier burden on the other.
The question, therefore, is not whether governments and technology companies should combat cyber-enabled crime. They should. Rather, the question is whether they can do so without unintentionally undermining humanitarian operations and cutting off civilians from the internet.
Su Mon Thazin Aung is a Fellow with the Myanmar Studies Programme at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. This article was first published by the institute’s commentary website fulcrum.sg


Malaysia to invite Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing for Rohingya repatriation talks

As Asia rapidly ages, who cares for the carers when they grow old?

Up in smoke: why Southeast Asia failed to halt the haze

As Singapore weighs joining China-led AI body, does it risk US retaliation?

Myanmar

SpaceX’s Starlink blackout punishes Myanmar civilians, not just cybercriminals

A man uses his mobile phone while sheltering under an umbrella as rain falls in Yangon, Myanmar, on August 11. Photo: AFP

Members of Myanmar's military stand next to Starlink devices seized during a raid on an online scam centre in Kayin state last year. Photo: AFP

A man uses his mobile phone while sheltering from the rain in Yangon on August 11. Millions of people in Myanmar rely on Starlink for internet access. Photo: AFP

A Starlink system in use in the US. Myanmar is not officially licensed for Starlink operations. Photo: Getty Images/AFP

Satellite dishes are seen on the roofs of buildings at a suspected scam centre in Myanmar, near the border with Thailand. Photo: AFP

The KK Park complex, then a scam hub in Myanmar’s eastern Myawaddy township, as pictured from Thailand’s border province of Tak last year. Photo: AFP

UN atrocity report adds friction to Myanmar junta’s diplomatic push for legitimacy

Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing reviews a Thai guard of honour during a welcome ceremony at Bangkok’s  Government House on August 6. Photo: Reuters

A man walks past the ruins of a building after an air strike by Myanmar’s military in Kyauktaw, western Rakhine State on June 18. Photo: AFP

Myanmar’s President Min Aung Hlaing (left) and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith leave after signing a memorandum of understanding at the Presidential Palace in Vientiane on July 3. Photo: Myanmar’s Presidential Press and Information Bureau/AFP

Min Aung Hlaing (right) and Aung San Suu Kyi arrive at Naypyidaw International Airport on May 6, 2016. Photo: EPA

Myanmar has ‘a mountain to climb’ to woo 2 million tourists a year

Tourists offer joss sticks at Myanmar’s Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon in 2019. Photo: AP

A cocktail promoter serves free shots during the opening of the 19th Street Chinatown night market in Yangon on June 9. Photo: EPA

Members of ethnic minority armed group Ta’ang National Liberation Army stand guard in a temple area of a hill camp in Myanmar’s northern Shan state on December 12, 2023. Photo: AFP

Myanmar steps up civilian attacks with drones and paragliders, UN says

Army soldiers pose in front of a captured fire department station in Myanmar’s eastern state of Kayah in August last year. Photo: AP

Min Aung Hlaing, then head of the military council, attends a parade to commemorate Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw in 2023. Photo: AP

This Week in Asia

Opinion

Asia Opinion

An estimated 13 million people – nearly a quarter of Myanmar’s population – rely on Starlink for internet access


An estimated 13 million people – nearly a quarter of Myanmar’s population – rely on Starlink for internet access.


Starlink

War and conflict

SpaceX

Singapore

United States

ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute

National University of Singapore (NUS)

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Asian Angle

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}An estimated 13 million people – nearly a quarter of Myanmar’s population – rely on Starlink for internet access

An estimated 13 million people – nearly a quarter of Myanmar’s population – rely on Starlink for internet access