Alcatel-Lucent has denied supplying internet or voice monitoring equipment to Myanmar.
A French magazine, Nouvel Observateur, last week published a letter from NGOs that claimed the equipment could help Myanmar monitor domestic communications.
The Paris-based vendor said there was “no truth in the suggestion that the company provided or installed any dedicated solution to Myanmar for monitoring voice calls or filtering internet.”
Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell (ASB), the company’s 100%-owned Shanghai-based subsidiary, had won a GSM contract with the Myanmar Posts & Telecommunications (MPT) in 2006, Alcatel-Lucent said.
The contract, financed by the Chinese government, included access, transmission and routing solutions, and was part of a project to deploy a regional backbone connecting China, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar, driven by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“Alcatel-Lucent appreciates and shares concern about the situation in Myanmar,” the statement added.
“We are convinced that improving the communications infrastructure of a country largely benefits the people of that country, by supporting the population's economic and cultural well-being and ultimately its capacity to evolve to democracy.”