News
Smart eyes 41.5% stake sale for expansion
Malaysian telecom giant Axiata Group will consider divesting a portion of its stake in Cambodian mobile operator Smart Mobile in a bid to free up capital to “pursue opportunities”, including infrastructure expansion and future acquisitions, a company executive said yesterday. ...
Kali Kotoski and Cam McGrath
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/smart-eyes-415-stake-sale-expansion
Mobile users top 20 million, internet usage still rising
The number of mobile subscribers in Cambodia topped 20 million last year, surpassing the country’s population by about 5 million. Internet users also jumped, according to a report released Wednesday by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The report fails to say how many Cambodians own ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/mobile-users-top-20-million-internet-usage-still-rising-55024/
Smart rolls out 4G network
Mobile internet speeds in Cambodia are ratcheting up a notch. Smart Mobile, the country’s second largest operator by subscribers, is making 4G LTE internet available to customers this week, the company announced yesterday during the launch of the service at NagaWorld Casino. Thomas Hundt, CEO of Smart, ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/smart-rolls-out-4g-network
Regulator wants licences
In the latest move to assert control over Cambodia’s saturated telecommunications industry and maintain tighter oversight, the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) last week called for all industry providers to give proof of operations in a bid to snuff out inactive firms and reclaim wasted ...
Eddie Morton and Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/regulator-wants-licences
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
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/
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
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/
Initiative Encourages Private Rural Investment
Representatives from more than 90 Cambodian businesses gathered yesterday at the Council of Ministers building in Phnom Penh to hear about a new initiative that aims to encourage private sector investment in agriculture. The $55.6 million project is an extension of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/initiative-encourages-private-rural-investment-37899/
Fixed-line users rise
The number of fixed-line telephone subscribers in Cambodia increased by four per cent in 2012 compared to 2011, standing in sharp contrast to a mobile phone subscriber growth of 22 per cent in the same period, statistics show. According to figures from the Ministry of Posts ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060466029/Business/fixed-line-users-rise.html
Telecoms Regulator Calls For Price Meeting
The Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) is calling all mobile phone operators to attend a meeting next week in order to reconsider the costs for within-and across-network calls, after disputes over bonus promotions in Cambodia’s crowded telecoms market. TRC director Mao Chakrya said that for the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013050165340/Business/telecoms-regulator-calls-for-price-meeting.html
Mobile Firms Agree to Stop Price Dumping
Cambodia’s nine mobile phone operators on Friday agreed to refrain from engaging in unfair competition by offering generous top-up bonuses aimed at increasing their market share, officials said. Mao Chakrya, director of the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC), said that all of the country’s operators agreed ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/mobile-firms-agree-to-stop-price-dumping-20689/
Long-overdue Consolidation of the Kingdom’s Mobile Telecoms Market May Have Operators Feeling Hopeful, but Challenges Remain
After years of immersion in a vicious price war, battle weary and capital-haemorrhaging [sic] mobile operators in Cambodia’s oversaturated telecommunications sector may finally have reason to breathe a sigh of relief; 2013 might be cited as the year the tide turned. Tarred by legal threats, ...
Mfone Workers Demand $4.4M Compensation
About 200 former employees of bankrupt mobile phone operator Mfone yesterday protested outside the company’s shuttered offices, asking for the help of Prime Minister Hun Sen in the fight to get more than $4 million in compensation from the company. Mfone declared itself insolvent in ...
More SIM cards sold, providers to shrink
Sales of SIM cards reached 19.7 million last year, a 21 per cent rise from the 16.2 million sold in 2011, data from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication (MPTC) shows. In contrast to the use of SIM cards, the number of telco operators decreased. In ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013031861984/Business/more-sim-cards-sold-providers-to-shrink.html
Mfone Employees Demand Unpaid Salaries
More than 100 former employees of the bankrupt mobile telephone company Mfone protested outside the firm’s shuttered offices in Phnom Penh yesterday, demanding that they receive salaries for working the month of February despite the company having already gone out of business. Mar Samoeun, 64, ...
As Liquidation of Mfone Begins, Victims and Lawsuits Abound
As insolvency proceedings against bankrupt telecommunications firm Mfone begin, yet another company, Smart Mobile, has filed a court complaint to collect unpaid costs from the mobile operator, and the list of parties to have suffered from the firm’s collapse continue to grow. The Phnom Penh Municipal ...
E-card holders concerned about SIM card exchange
Mfone e-card holders are concerned that the cards can no longer be used after the change from Mfone’s SIM card to Cellcard’s SIM and, along with officials, are unsure of a solution. Wholesalers and retailers have expressed concern that they will lose money when the scratch ...
iPhone struggles for a place in Cambodian market
It will not be enough for Apple to simply offer a cheaper iPhone for the company to gain share in the competitive Cambodian smartphone market, according to industry insiders. They say Apple’s operating system, iOS, may also restrict their potential growth. Bloomberg last week reported that Apple ...
Coca-Cola, Smart Mobile again team up for top-ups
Coca-cola and Smart Mobile have teamed up in a joint promotion to give away $1 million worth of prizes, including top-up minutes and 25 Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphones using numbers printed under bottle caps of Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite. The promotion started on November 1 ...
Telcos still vie for subscribers
The battle for subscriber numbers rages on in the still-clustered Cambodian mobile market. Smart Mobile this week announced it passed the 3 million-subscriber mark, which would make it Cambodia’s second-largest operator by subscriber numbers after Vietnam’s Metfone. Numbers obtained by the Post showed Cellcard with a consecutive ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061456789/Business/telcos-still-vie-for-subscribers.html
Mobile dating finds Cambodia
A new mobile dating and networking service called Chibi, designed to be used by even rural Cambodians, has made an agreement with Smart Mobile to enable anyone with a mobile phone to inexpensively meet and send messages to potential love interests. Australian David Wilkie and his ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061456788/Business/mobile-dating-finds-cambodia.html
Mobile market still growing
Cambodian mobile operators added more than 1 million new subscribers between May and July, with Smart Mobile seeing the largest percentage increase for the period, according to Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications figures obtained by the Post. Marc Einstein, a Tokyo-based analyst at research and ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011090751483/Business/mobile-market-still-growing.html
Smart in internet launch
SMART Mobile yesterday announced the official launch of its 3.75G data service, a key part of the company’s strategy to capture Cambodia’s burgeoning mobile internet market. The firm estimated its 3.75G would allow for data download speeds of up to 21 megabits per second and ...