When a multinational telecommunications company leaves a country, users may lose protections, according to a Global Voices analysis included in its series on tech giants and authoritarianism. The text begins with the case of Telenor in Myanmar.
Telenor's case in Myanmar
Telenor, the Norwegian company, closed the sale of its Myanmar subsidiary to the M1 Group in March 2022, a little over a year after the military coup, ending almost eight years of operations there. Global Voices states that since then the company has faced criticism, lawsuits and litigation from civil society and from affected individuals.
In September 2026, according to the analysis, Norwegian authorities opened criminal investigations over alleged complicity in crimes against humanity and over the possible transfer, during the sale, of surveillance equipment subject to sanctions. A few days later, a Norwegian court authorised a class action by former Telenor customers in Myanmar. The company argues that any other course would have endangered its employees.
A broader trend
The text describes other withdrawals. Telenor merged Digi with Celcom in Malaysia in 2022, combined dtac with True Corporation in Thailand the following year and, at the end of 2025, completed the sale of Telenor Pakistan to PTCL. MTN announced an "orderly exit" from the Middle East in 2020 and by 2025 had ended its operations in Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan; in 2024 it sold its businesses in Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry. Telefónica transferred its subsidiaries in Argentina, Peru, Uruguay and Ecuador in 2025, and left Colombia, Chile and Mexico in early 2026.
What is lost in the handover
According to the authors, Telenor, MTN and Telefónica are among the best-performing companies in the sector on transparency. Their reports detail how they respond to official requests for user data, content restrictions and network shutdowns. However, the analysis argues that, in most cases, those reports do not survive a change of ownership.
Millicom bought Telefónica's operations in Uruguay and Ecuador, as well as the majority stake in Colombia. It publishes reports on the handing over of data to authorities, but grouped by region rather than by country; as of September 2026, only the 2024 report was available to the public. As for the other recent buyers, the text states that none appears to have published reports or made a commitment to maintain the practices of their predecessors.
The authors add that many successors could have closer ties to governments and face less pressure from the press and NGOs.
Proposals and MTN's pending case in Iran
The authors propose commissioning a human rights impact assessment specific to the exit, examining the buyer's track record and deciding which data or surveillance equipment should not be handed over. They note that there is no public record that Telenor carried out an independent assessment of the risks of its exit.
MTN retains 49% of Irancell, and US sanctions against Iran complicate any exit. In early 2026, according to the analysis, MTN protested after the Iranian authorities dismissed Irancell's chief executive, a dismissal motivated by his having delayed an order to cut off the internet amid protests.
Sources
- Global Voices en Español (CC BY 3.0)
