Tablets, Wi-Fi Hotspots a Bigger Factor in Myanmar Internet Access

New devices and new networks, often unforeseen by the telecommunications industry, have played a huge role in overcoming the problem of supplying voice services to billions of people in the developing world.

It now appears the same thing is happening for Internet access. Specifically, tablet devices now are making it possible for people to acquire and use computing devices other than smartphones, while Wi-Fi hotspots are the network those tablet users rely on for Internet access.

In Myanmar, for example, a country with extraordinarily low mobile phone and fixed broadband adoption, tablets are proving to be a crucial device for Internet usage. Total fixed and mobile voice penetration, for example, is 10 percent. 


Image via Shutterstock

From January to May of 2013, tablet sales in Myanmar grew 61 percent, according to GfK. Those 450,000 tablet sales represented 170,000 more purchases than in the same period of 2012.

GfK says at least 78,000 tablets were sold monthly since the start of 2013, possibly driven by a 20-percent drop in retail price.

Given Internet penetration of less than 1 percent, with most of those few users concentrated in only the two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, it also might not be unusual that more users are starting to rely on Wi-Fi for Internet access.

GfK says Wi-Fi-only tablet sales were about 22 percent of all units sold between June and November 2012. In the December 2012 to May 2013 period, Wi-Fi-only tablet sales were about 25 percent of all sales.

And it appears wireless and mobile networks account for those changes. "The vast improvement in wireless broadband in Malaysia has increased the number of hotspots available, which helps drive the uptake of Wi-Fi only models especially with its lower price tag,” says Selinna Chin, managing director for GfK in Malaysia.

In addition to the use of hotspot Wi-Fi, smartphones, used in tethered mode, also appear to be driving use of Wi-Fi-only tablets.

Both the use of tablets as the Internet access device, and the reliance on wireless networks, especially Wi-Fi or tethered smartphones, shows the impact of non-traditional access methods in a country with exceptionally low adoption of the Internet, mobile phones or even fixed telephone service.