THE number of internet users in Myanmar has reached nearly 300,000, up from merely 12 four years ago, according to figures from the telecommunications authorities, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

According to the Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraphs, although telephone wire capacity has been upgraded from two megabytes per second to 12MB, internet lines are still so congested that arrangements are being made to upgrade the capacity further to 45MB.

To improve internet access, the ministry announced in July it was also targeting to extend connections of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) to every township by the end of this year.