Communications
Communications infrastructure
Sonando postpones protest for TV licence
Beehive Radio director Mam Sonando said yesterday that he was forced to postpone a planned demonstration in support of his bid for a television license as he had given authorities insufficient notice of what he hoped would be an ongoing protest. On Friday, Sonando – whose ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sonando-postpones-protest-tv-licence
Council of Ministers Nullifies Telecom Law
The Council of Ministers has nullified a 2009 law that set minimum prices on telephone calls, paving the way for regulators to reset the country’s telecommunications prices, which industry executives say are too high. The law, Prakas 232, which has been widely flouted, set a minimum ...
Hul Reaksmey and Joshua Wilwohl -
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/council-of-ministers-nullifies-telecom-law-49573/
Telcos to form association
Cambodia’s nine phone service operators plan to establish an independent body to debate issues within the industry, according to a statement yesterday from the Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia (TRC). Forming the Association of Telecommunications Operators in Cambodia, or the ATC for short, was agreed upon in ...
Eddie Morton and May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/telcos-form-association
Despite Ban, Operators Offer Bonuses
Two of the country’s largest mobile phone operators are again offering attractive deals on calls, despite the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia’s (TRC) recent order to mobile operators to follow the government’s minimum prices for calls and to scale back customer promotions. On Sunday, Smart, which is ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/despite-ban-operators-offer-bonuses-49483/
Information sector vital to deepen Cambodia-China ties: Cambodian minister
Cambodian Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said Wednesday that information sector has played a very important role to further enhance ties and cooperation between Cambodia and China, saying that Cambodia is looking forward to broadening information cooperation with China. “Information sector is a potential and effective way ...
People's Daily Online News Staff
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90883/8482297.html
Minister Says Set Phone Call Prices ‘Temporary’
The minister of posts and telecommunications on Monday insisted an edict ordering the country’s seven mobile phone operators to abide by a law that sets minimum prices for calls is only temporary. Prak Sokhon, the newly-appointed posts and telecommunications minister, said the order was necessary because ...
Joshua Wilwohl and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/minister-says-set-phone-call-prices-temporary-48975/
Cambodia’s telecom agency firm on fees
Cambodia’s telecommunications ministry yesterday defended intervening in the market by fixing minimum prices for mobile phone calls, rationalising the base charges as necessary to stem the loss of tax revenue and avert a monopolised industry. The floor price was introduced in 2009 to prevent the demise ...
Chan Muy Hong and Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/cambodia%E2%80%99s-telecom-agency-firm-fees
Regulator to Review Minimum Prices for Calls
An official at the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) said Wednesday that the body plans to review and possibly lower the current minimum price per call after it recently ordered the country’s seven mobile phone operators to abide by a law that sets minimum call ...
Joshua Wilwohl and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/regulator-to-review-minimum-prices-for-calls-48616/
Price rules pulled due to election
The government in May held back on implementing widely unpopular rules that would have raised the price of mobile phone calls so as to not upset consumers – and potential voters – just months ahead of the national election, according to Cambodia’s independent telecommunications regulator. “Before ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/price-rules-pulled-due-election
Chinese TV station to launch
Cambodia could soon get its first Chinese-run digital television station, the latest local project hailing from a country that represents one of the Kingdom’s largest foreign investors. Yu Hua, deputy director of Yunnan Mobile Digital TV Corporation, based in China’s Yunnan province, met with Cambodia’s Minister ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chinese-tv-station-launch
Minimum call charges apply: TRC
Mobile phone call promotions undercutting the government’s minimum pricing regulations are to be outlawed – again. Minimum charges will be applied to mobile phone calls from on Thursday with the return of the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia’s (TRC) rules on call tariffs, the regulator confirmed yesterday. On ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/minimum-call-charges-apply-trc
Challenging business for startups
The World Bank recently ranked Cambodia 184th out of 189 countries for ease of starting a business, but you wouldn’t have known it at Phnom Penh’s recent Startup Weekend. Pitches for Cambodia’s first commercial organic chicken farm and for an app to connect tuk-tuk drivers to ...
Justine Drennan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/challenging-business-startups
Smart Mobile Sees 36% Revenue Growth
Malaysian telecommunications company Axiata Group Berhad reported Wednesday that its Cambodian brand Smart has seen strong growth in the first nine months of the year, with revenue increasing by 36 percent compared with the same period last year. In its third quarter financial report, Axiata said ...
George Styllis
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/smart-mobile-sees-36-revenue-growth-48215/
Ministries to Embark on Project With Microsoft
Technology giant Microsoft is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education as well as the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts to help build a free online Khmer-language database for users to translate documents between Khmer and other languages, a ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/ministries-to-embark-on-project-with-microsoft-47964/
Information Minister Orders TVK to Scrap Tedious Coverage
If Information Minister Khieu Kanharith is any indication, even the government is tiring of state television. Mr. Kanharith announced on Facebook on Wednesday that he had personally ordered the state-run TVK channel to stop broadcasting the comings and goings of state officials on foreign excursions. Mr. ...
Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/information-minister-orders-tvk-to-scrap-tedious-coverage-47680/
MobiTel Named in Leaked Australian Phone Tap Document
When one of Australia’s top intelligence agencies in 2009 presented staff with a slideshow detailing their attempts to intercept mobile telephone calls by Indonesia’s president, first lady and top officials, it also revealed other possible spying targets—including one of Cambodia’s largest mobile operators, MobiTel, according ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/mobitel-named-in-leaked-australian-phone-tap-documents-47672/
Social Media Challenges ‘Official’ Version of Events
Seeing is believing—particularly in a country where the government controls the broadcast media and current affairs news, aired on pro-ruling party TV and radio, is often at odds with the country’s few independent media outlets. But in the aftermath of a violent clash between striking garment ...
Kuch Naren and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/social-media-challenges-official-version-of-events-47012/
New provider CooTel launches in Kingdom
Telecommunications company Xinwei (Cambodia) Telecom Co Ltd, operating under the CooTel brand, officially launched in Cambodia yesterday, being the first operator to offer 4G technology in the country, a company statement released yesterday said. “CooTel strongly believes it will be successful in entering the Cambodian market ...
Post Staff, P.8
http://www.phnompenhpost.com
ILO-BFC unveils worker mobile phone call-in project report
The International Labour Organisation’s Better Factories Cambodia program (BFC) releases the first report from its mobile phone call-in project aimed at educating garment and footwear workers. The mobile phone project entitled Kamako Chhnoeum (‘Outstanding Worker’ in Khmer) received 3,245 valid phone calls in its first two ...
Fibre2Fashion News Staff
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=154799
Former Mfone staff to get paid
Over eight months after Cambodian mobile operator Mfone filed for bankruptcy, the defunct provider’s former staffers should get their outstanding salaries in November, according to the case’s court-appointed administrator. Bankruptcy administrator Ouk Ry said yesterday that deals have been made on many of the failed telecom’s ...
Anne Renzenbrink and Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/former-mfone-staff-get-paid
Locals’ Internet Access Doesn’t Equal Freedom
An increasing number of Cambodians have access to the Internet due to ownership of smartphones, tablets and the expansion of wireless broadband to rural areas of Cambodia, but access does not mean freedom from restrictions, according to a new report by New York-based Freedom House. In ...
Lindsey Peterson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/locals-internet-access-doesnt-equal-freedom-44939/
Norwegian Energy Firm Eltek Demands Mfone Pay Up
Norwegian energy firm Eltek on Thursday demanded $5 million it is owed from bankrupt telecommunications company Mfone by the end of October and blamed the court and the government for stalling payment. During a meeting at Mfone’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Keng Kang III commune, ...
Simon Henderson and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/norwegian-energy%E2%80%88firm-eltek-demands-mfone-pay-up-42823/
Japanese Investor in Talks to Take Stake in TV3
Japan’s TriAsia Group is in talks to acquire a majority stake in local television station TV3 and plans to broadcast Japanese-language shows, the television channel’s owner confirmed Wednesday. According to TV3’s owner, Khampun Keomony, revenues at the channel have been dropping, which prompted him to look ...
Hul Reaksmey and Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/japanese-investor-in-talks-to-take-stake-in-tv3-41707/
Resurgent mobile deals could hurt margins, analysts say
‘Top up $2 and get 30 free minutes daily for 20 days. Top up $5 and expand the same offer for a month. And, for a $10 recharge, that half-an-hour freebie lasts 50 days.” Mobile operator Beeline, which announced the promotion in August, called it “another ...
Anne Renzenbrink
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/resurgent-mobile-deals-could-hurt-margins-analysts-say