Cambodian Phone Market

Every one of the Prime Corporations Tend to be Giving out Advertising Cups

2012-01-13T06:44:00.000-08:00

Standard marketing strategies are getting to be fairly outdated and also the planet is actually shifting over to fresh marketing as well as coverage units. The newest equipment used these days regarding marketing and advertising have a very long lasting perception in specific target audience. Marketing mugs are one the new age group advertising models utilized by large businesses for any various functions, including most notable getting producing manufacturer awareness.

Some of the attributes of employing discount cups tend to be that they can be customized and also private to look the best way you want. The company can create brand name awareness by simply printing the brand, combined with the business's objective statement or even mantra, around the marketing glass. These are an excellent method of advertising enterprise. There exists a huge variety of advertising tankards patterns to choose from. The ideal style plus a coloring just like the corporation's concept coloring provides to improve final results.

The actual keyrings may be chinaware, earthenware, goblet personalize mugs or perhaps plastic-type mugs. Buying of those advertising cups can also be not really a head ache any more. This really is mostly with thanks to the net. Internet sites are offering to you very competitive prices for you to for advertising glass and you'll utilize this.

Advertising keyrings require lowest purchase but offer you great outcomes. Keyrings as being a asset are widely-used simply by people sometimes. Coffee and tea cups are utilized on a daily basis. Therefore this can be a very helpful give away which individuals will continue to utilize therefore guaranteeing your current model profile. Eventually creates a connection with clients and highly valued consumers. Where ever they'll use the particular keyrings, the company logo will be uncovered thus developing model awareness. By doing this an individual entice new business as well as consumers. Marketing personalize mugs can be published together with company data similar to firm internet site handle and many others. in order that more and more people might be activated to talk to your internet sites. Any glass has ample area in order to printing a logo, a slogan and phone details. It can be smaller than average small as well as a pretty much beneficial object.

These kind of keyrings works extremely well at various situations such as exhibitions, trade shows, conventions along with financed situations. They are also suitable for handing out since worker understanding returns. Customised keyrings for this purpose just isn't challenging to get and can be practiced so in very reasonable rates.

People want to train on a glass. And everyone adores any situation that occurs free of charge. While company distributors go to current consumers, these types of keyrings can ensure model devotion when they're given these kinds of mugs. High quality mugs may cause an enduring perception. In a display, every time a website visitor covers a free promotional cup, you will get the perfect possibility to trigger a new income chat that will not look high pressured due to the reward in the mug.

The mug increases in a person. A great individualized glass can remain having a particular person for a long time all the while calmly producing manufacturer consciousness within all those that meet this, also within a social also just like a caffeine using buddies in your own home. Gifting advertising pot can be a strategy for overcoming sales resistance that's common within customers because of the barrage regarding commercials that some people are accustomed to today. Find more about Physical Therapy Schools and Physical Therapy Assistant Schools in Texas.

Home loans to acquire Your Loan

2012-01-04T23:13:00.000-08:00

On the planet many of us reside in right now it's not at all as simple to have the mortgage you'll need. Lending options was once as typically given since debit cards, but with any declining economy banks are usually shying away from financing income to prospects in the centre and minimize instructional classes. Midsection males, called lenders, are made to assist those that are able to afford a new mortgage loan, but they are being declined simply by their community finance institutions. By allowing a home financing agent to search for the best bank for you, you can be positive to find the actual bank loan you are hoping for.

Who will be these banks calling that won’t give you the mortgage loan right? No doubt you can very easily transfer on your own via lender to standard bank proposing the money and seeking your want to be given. Selecting this specific route might get numerous days to go to every nearby standard bank seeking the very best rates. Actually, much of the finest delivers will not likely be in the condition you reside inside. Lenders contain the interconnection you'll want to converse straight with lenders, preventing from coming into financial institutions using a course history of smacking upon absurdly sharp prices to your bank loan. You are going to stay away from sacrificing a lot of time as well as throwing away money by letting the actual broker agents seek out banks in your case.

When evaluating your mortgage home loans will not likely allow you to get involved too deep. There's no need to utilize each last nickel which you help make in a thirty day period in order to take care of your repayments current. They will suggest for you to make a reasonable down payment to help decrease the borrowed funds you might be requesting. By giving them with your regular debts verse the monthly income they can evaluate which a great size repayment will be in buy that you can reside the lifestyle you need. They are able to reject numerous lenders by figuring out the actual quantities you might have offered these people.

Mortgage brokers will highlight all the options you must take into account too. Interest is a thing you will have to acknowledge, however are very different varieties of lending options to take into consideration in terms of the problem. They are able to lay out the variety of an individual of experiencing a fixed or an adaptable charge for the loan. And then begin with either obtaining the finest fixed price or searching for a suited variable one particular. Obviously along with flexible charges occurs the risk of them increasing, but you are also due to the potential for all of them reducing that will benefit you. They are fully aware almost all you need to know regarding house loans along with finding these people. Just request and they'll help. I recommend you to read more about how to lose weight in 3 day diet.

What Is the Passivhaus Specifically?

2012-01-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

Passivhaus is a term many of us are likely to learn more often as we all turn into ever more dedicated to vitality performance. As you might possess guessed in the punctuation Passivehaus has its sources inside Indonesia being part of the actual nations constructing specifications. Any property assembly the standard can have been designed to take advantage of the sun's warmth and then for any other readily accessible resource -- which includes men and women, household devices as well as normal fresh-air. One of the primary factors that really help to reduce the necessity for traditional home heating is actually tremendous substantial numbers of insulating material and also air small windows and doors. Your entire textile of the home, which include flooring surfaces and wall space, function through holding heat to help sustain heat in winter. Digging in Solar power panels as well as heat pushes might also play a part in offering productive forms of high temperature.

The key objective of the Indirect Home is to get lower influence on the planet and therefore will usually need close to 75% significantly less home heating than a typical residence. Although develop charges could be approximately 8% greater than a normal construct the important benefit is undoubtedly your cost savings the actual house owner may make upon gasoline bills. Moreover the dog owner may also be relatively smug about their co2 productivity.

Quality of air is often governed through hardware indicates as well as heat healing techniques. For those who love to become warm this is undeniably your home in your case as temps are generally maintained at the continual stage. Airborne dirt and dust and plant pollen particles are filtered out from the air flow that is an added bonus for you to anybody who suffers from linked allergy symptoms. finding physician assistant salary.

The best idea Necessary protein Powdered ingredients regarding Developing a Better System?

2011-12-29T19:43:00.000-08:00

In terms of choosing the right protein powder, there exists a good deal to think about, such as the cost of these proteins sprays. Even so, expense - though it is important - needs to be the last thought, in case you are serious about weight training. Before you think about the expense of various items, you should very first determine which items may be the very best so that you can be positive about this is the better powdered for you.

When you find yourself shopping for the best health proteins powdered, you will end up amazed at the choices you have, along with the chances are good which without some elementary protein powdered ingredients knowledge, you will be hugely confused as well. You will see powders or shakes in which boast egg-whites, calcium mineral casein, total ovum, hydrolyzed whey, whey protein isolate, whey protein focus, along with the list goes on and on.

Each one of these several types of healthy proteins have got diverse benefits, and it's also imperative that you select which a single it's that you will get essentially the most make use of even before you begin looking at the various brand names available. Maybe you might even realize that you'll need a necessary protein mix, that's basically a mix of varied several types of health proteins.

You may even find that you may need a number of different forms of necessary protein nutritional supplements, which there is absolutely no certain sort that is the greatest powdered. For instance, you want to take whey protein following a work out. Even so, you might want to take a hydrolyzed health proteins powdered prior to a workout. Yet again, educate yourself regarding the several types of necessary protein, and figure out what one as well as ones you will need before you start extra cash.

Many authorities concur in which selecting a necessary protein blend is the best choice, because you receive the total spectrum of benefits during the day. Nonetheless, according to your individual targets and needs, you could possibly choose to stay away from combines, along with opt for particular person necessary protein kinds with various points in the day. Yet at this time, you simply must commence with the price of the very best proteins powders on the market.

The top protein grains are costly; nevertheless pricey does not always indicate good quality. Conversely, most top quality items are costlier. Once more, it is just a wise decision you just read evaluations from the powders or shakes to find out which one is the most effective to suit your needs.

Many nutrition stores have taste styles of those health supplements. Prior to deciding to spend big money for giant showers, alternatively obtain a weeks’ worth of the actual trial sizes - as well as a couple weeks * and attempt these people out and about. This may supply you with a much better understanding of which powder is the best for your goals. You may even opt to use for the expense of one bath of the greatest health proteins powder which has a good friend so that you can each give it a shot prior to buying your individual bath. This can let you equally to test several different merchandise, over time needless to say, without paying the full price of people items.

Getting Your Student Loan Refinanced

2011-12-28T06:28:00.000-08:00

A good way to make sure you are getting the most effective cope probable once you start paying back has given, is via education loan mortgage refinancing. This is when anyone successfully sign up for a new mortgage loan to repay your current a number of student education loans and so you only have one settlement 30 days to produce beneath new stipulations, like a longer term to these people or possibly a better monthly interest.

The main reason you can get much better conditions by mortgage refinancing has given, is that you typically can not do that kind of consolidation unless you start to pay for the financial products back. By this time, you are more prone to have a good credit standing than on the stage if you got the credit, since you will be more mature, work, and also have a few credit score monthly payments below your belt. Since the greatest costs for a re-finance go to individuals with the best credit standing, this really is some thing you are going to check into it really is worth finding your credit report as well as taking action to be able to repair just about any poor places on it prior to taking step 2 involving investigating re-finance offers.

One thing to bear in mind when thinking about mortgage loan remortgage is that you simply will want to re-finance any federal financial loans on their own from any private financial loans. The reason for that is the national financial products by simply their own mother nature have a considerably low interest rate. Because of this in case you consolidate government loans such as Stafford lending options along with Perkins loans with larger price exclusive loans you will lose the low interest rate on the federal financial loans along with wind up paying a lot more for the children.

This means you should research two separate deals associated with education loan re-finance - one for the non-public financial products and one to your federal government financial loans. This will of course mean anyone lose in in the benefits of student loan refinancing which can be merely the need to create a single payment monthly, but that is a small investment to spend less.

There are two ways any refinancing will help you. One particular choices to obtain a reduced rate of interest general on your own repackaged credit card debt, which means you pay significantly less on your bank loan in the long run. The financial savings can be very large just try to acquire a great deal. The opposite is always to decrease your regular monthly expenses by taking out there student loan re-finance on the greater timespan when compared with your current unique repayment schedule.

This will likely suggest you end up investing read more about your loan general, as there could be more charges, however it includes how the quantity you have to pay on a monthly basis could possibly be substantially reduced and simpler for you to director.

Speak with your suppliers concerning re-financing on your federal government lending options, along with research prices for several offers coming from finance institutions to your personal financial products. You could be shocked simply how much more satisfied you may be in the short or long time period with a student loan remortgage cope. Click here to get more info.

Student Loans in the US and the Gods of Educational Debt

2011-12-28T06:24:00.000-08:00

Allow us to allow you to understand your path from the occasionally confusing arena of Education loans through addressing some of the most generally requested questions regarding Non-public Loan consolidations. Here are your 6 most inquired questions regarding Exclusive Consolidations.

Just when was the best time to get an exclusive Education loan Loan consolidation?

A good time to look for an exclusive Consolidation remortgage is roughly 6 months or even more after college, once you have acquired an opportunity to set up as well as improve your credit merit insurance firms full-time career or have established an impartial credit rating. It is possible to undoubtedly combine your loan right after graduating, most financial loans come in deferment for that initial Half a year publish graduation.

How come My spouse and i merge my own Private Loans?

You might be capable of decrease your monthly installments by simply stretching the particular loan repayment period having a Student loan consolidation rates. In addition, you may be able to lower your all round interest cost by simply combining many lending options straight into a single. In case lots of monthly payments are usually driving you nuts as you send repayments in order to multiple financial institution, you could possibly need the particular of just one payment amount.

What are mortgage loan limits of a the Private Loan consolidation?

The product range via $7,Five-hundred to be able to $100,1000 kind of Undergrad Student Loan financial debt and also $7,400 to $150,000 form of hosting Scholar School debt.

Which are the payment alternatives for an individual Loan consolidation?

With regard to being qualified borrowers, the borrowed funds could be interest simply for approximately Four years or perhaps can easily mix curiosity and also rule.

What is the ready time period for mortgage loan approval?

Conditional approval is actually quick. It a minimum of Fortyfive days and nights to accomplish the credit, including the additional review of bank loan documents.

Need to my personal Federal government student education loans become combined using my Personal School loans?

Both Non-public Student education loans along with National student loans might be consolidated, however they must be consolidated individually coming from one another. Both the different classes will not be put together whenever combining your loans.

Really does any credit score suitable co-signer lessen the price of my own Non-public Loan consolidation?

Since interest on the Personal Consolidation Loan is founded on the particular client's credit rating, a new customer will get a lower monthly interest if credit rating is actually enhanced through getting a credit history suitable co-signer to the mortgage, such as a a relative. Cosigner release may be possible soon after 12 sequential on-time installments regarding basic principle as well as attention.

The importance of calorie diet

2011-12-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

To be able to get rid of pounds your body must burn off the additional body fat which is kept. Reducing energy and acquiring lots of everyday exercising will help you to accomplish their weight get rid of targets. The 1500 calorie diet can help conquer an individual's metabolic rate directly into high items, helping get rid of individuals extra pounds.

There is a certain method to this type of diet regime. By simply consuming much less energy, one's body begins to shortage electricity. For a personal body to generate up for that vitality reduction it starts to burn surplus fat. In the beginning a person may experience a lot more tired next normally, but because entire body starts to accommodate the progress exhaustion tends to minimize.

An average of a pound of excess fat is the same as with regards to three, 400 calories. In order for the person to get rid of a pound several, 400 much less calories from fat must be used. This concept may seem overpowering at first, nevertheless coupled with exercising, the extra weight has a tendency to melt off swiftly.

There are certain food item that work well which has a 1500 calorie diet. Candy and food items loaded with body fat needs to be dealt in for fruits as well as greens. Seafood and poultry are fantastic choices to greasy reddish lean meats and also deep fried foods. Whole grain products and an assortment of coffee beans will offer the body plenty of the best vitamins and minerals. Non-fat dairy foods ought to be utilized as a substitute pertaining to milk with higher extra fat written content.

There are many dietary fads around that promise rapid weight missing and quite often folks carry out notice results. Typically the extra weight is put back again upon in a couple of months. These types of dishes are the actual ideal approach to acquire lbs associated with and make them away.

Mfone users decline

2011-08-29T01:24:00.000-07:00

MFONE yesterday reported a 21 percent quarter-on-quarter decline in total subscribers, which parent company Thaicom blamed on fierce competition in the Cambodian telecoms sector.

Total subscribers for the second quarter of 2011 fell 20.7 percent to about 553,600 from just over 698,000 in the first quarter, according company statements.

Mfone, 51-percent owned by Thaicom, offers fixed-line, mobile phone and internet services in Cambodia. Thaicom’s revenues from telephone services, also including Laos Telecomm-unications Company, dropped nearly 27 percent year-on-year to 274 million baht (US$9.1 million) from 374 million baht in the second quarter of last year.Source: the phnom penh post

(This blog to shear important news on Student loan forgiveness)

Metfone’s major fibre expansion

2011-08-29T01:21:00.000-07:00

Metfone has claimed to control more than 80 percent of Cambodia’s fibre-optic network, allowing it to reach every commune in the Kingdom.

The firm said it contributed 16,000 kilometres of fibre-optic backbone to Cambodia’s total of about 20,000 kilometres, citing a February report from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The last 20 percent was split between Telecom Cambodia and Cambodia Fibre Optic Communication Network Company (CFOCN), the company said.

Metfone, which is owned by Viettel, a subsidiary of the Vietnamese military, claimed its cable deployment, all of which has been done since the company received an investment licence in 2006, was “13 times as high as the total national optical backbone developed by the whole country during previous 10 years”.

“Metfone is currently the owner of the biggest capacity and largest coverage fiber network in Cambodia,” Metfone said in a statement released earlier this month.

While Metfone Managing Director Nguyen Duy Tho did not return requests for comment, insiders were mixed as to the legitimacy of the company’s numbers.

Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun said Metfone’s coverage was likely to be about 80 percent of Cambodia’s total network of fibre.

CFOCN CEO Steven Cao estimated the number for Viettel was probably between 10,000 kilometres and 15,000 kilometres.

CFOCN holds about 5,000 kilometres of cable, he said. Telecom Cambodia Director General Lao Saroeun this week said the state-owned firm owned over 1,000 kilometre.

Cao likened Metfone’s reported fibre-cable numbers to those of its mobile subscribers. Where Metfone claims 8 million subscribers in Cambodia, Cao said the number was closer to 4.7 million.

Heath Shan, CEO of Cambodian wholesale fibre provider NTC, rejected that comparison. He said the Kingdom’s fibre network was quantifiable, while industry insiders have often called into question the veracity of domestic subscriber numbers.

Given those figures, he said the Kingdom’s total fibre network may in fact be larger than the ministry’s February report claims, possibly as high as 25,000 kilometres but likely closer to 22,000 kilometres.

Shan noted Metfone’s boast of reaching all of the Kingdom’s communes was one of choice, as other companies have focused instead on more commercially viable urban areas.

He said the return on investment for such an extended network was “extremely long”. Also, a number of companies were looking to wireless technology as an alternative to fibre in these areas.

Analysts called Metfone’s early push into the Kingdom’s over 1,600 communes a preparation for the eventual arrival of third-generation wireless, or 3G, services there.

Marc Einstein, industry manager for Frost & Sullivan’s information and communication technologies practice in the Asia-Pacific region, said Metfone is “getting its network ready for future growth”.

The company’s move will allow Metfone to run a stronger network, one that’s faster and cheaper for consumers than competitors and offers the capacity needed for 3G services.

“I think it really does show Viettel means business in the country, and that’s going to make it harder for these other companies,” he said. Source: the phnom penh post

Chinese mobiles dial up big sales

2011-08-29T01:15:00.000-07:00

Cambodian consumers have noted a preference for Chin-ese-made, imitation mobile handsets, as they offer cheap yet viable alternatives to name-brand cell phones.

The demand is coming largely from low- and middle-income Cambodians seeking functional handsets at affordable prices. As a result, these consumers have said they are choosing established brands less and less.

Chea Bun Leang, 25, working at a shop near Boeung Trabek market in Chamkarmon district, touted Chinese phones for being both inexpensive and up-to-date.

“The programes on these phones are not that different from what you get on an original Nokia. And they’re not so expensive that I can’t afford them,’’ he said.

Some Chinese-made phones sell for as little as US$10 and offer dual-SIM capability. Even the more expensive models, which imitate Apple’s popular iPhone, are significantly cheaper than their branded counterparts.

High-priced phones were simply not necessary for many Cambodians, Lin, a clothes seller at the Boeung Trabek market who asked to be identified by her first name only, said.

“The phones are usable, whether they’re expensive or not. I don’t need much because I’m either at home or selling at the market,’’ she said, adding that Cambodia’s upper classes might not share her sentiments.

Keo Tharith, general manager of TR Mobile, a cell-phone shop also near the Boeung Trabek market, noted the growing market share of Chin-ese phones thanks to their low price. That has brought mostly middle-class customers and students to his store.

“I think Chinese phones are getting more and more popular because they are so competitive with name-brand handsets,’’ he said, adding that those handsets ranged between $18 and $20 at his shop.

Nokia, however, pushed back against the idea that it was losing ground to competitors in Cambodia.

“Competition is not new for Nokia. We welcome competition from legitimate vendors who have legitimate [intellectual property] and follow the law,’’ Nokia communications manager in Cambodia Y Sokun said. “We are confident that we can tackle our competitors, as we have done in the past, by concentrating on our strengths. We have a wide range of handsets, including entry-level handsets at very competitive prices.”

Y Sokun also pointed to something Nokia can offer that the Chinese phones cannot.

“In today’s world, it’s not just about devices but services and solutions. We see ourselves as a strong challenger in mobile solutions, which is the combination of a specific service along with a device.

“Many of our competitors can’t copy this solutions focus.”

Other shop owners also said Chinese phones might prove to be only a fad.

Still, cost seems to be the primary factor for some. Porn Soeun, a 61-year-old motorbike taxi driver working at Boeung Keng Kong market, said Chinese phones were his only option.

“I cannot afford a high-priced phone because I can make only 10,000 riel per day.” Source: the Phnom Penh Post

(This blog to share important information about low cholesterol diet)

Topping up: Refresh inks Beeline deal

2011-08-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

Refresh Mobile yesterday announced its newest partner, saying Beeline customers can now add credit to their mobile phones via Refresh’s electronic top-up terminals.

In addition to the Beeline deal, which went into effect August 8, Refresh has agreements with Mobitel and internet service provider Online. More deals will be announced in the near future, company officials said.

“We’ve seen sales continue to rise. More and more people are topping up at the terminals,” Ian Watson, Refresh Mobile’s founder and a major investor, said. He said Refresh operated 8500 top-up terminals in 19 provinces, with its presence in the remaining five provinces expected by early September.

“We’re the bridge to the digital age” in Cambodia, he said. Source: the phnom penh post

Mfone looks to the future

2011-08-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

The owners of Cambodian mobile operator Mfone are considering a number of strategies to strengthen the firm, after the head of the its majority owner said it would contemplate pulling out of the Kingdom.

Thaicom chief executive Suphajee Suthumpun last week said the company was considering exiting Mfone along with Laos Telecommunications Company in the wake of lagging performance at both firms.

“We are pondering many alternatives, including pulling out of there. A decision on this matter should be made soon,” she reportedly said.

“We may get rid of them, keep one of them, or keep both. It’s all possible.”

The comment had raised questions about the fate of Mfone, which saw its subscriber numbers decline 21 percent between the first and second quarters of this year.

However, Thaicom’s CEO was stating merely “the possibility and not the intention” of selling Mfone, said Atip Rittaporn, managing director at Shenington Investments, the holding company under which Thaicom controls Mfone.

“The current situation is not favourable to future operations in Laos and in Cambodia, so we have to make a move. If there are interested parties, we are open to the possibility of discussion,” he said yesterday.

Thaicom controls 51 percent of Shenington Investments, which owns 100 percent of Mfone. The remaining 49 percent of Shenington is held by Asia Mobile Holdings, a joint venture which is 75 percent held by Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) and the remainder by Qatar Telecommunications..

Atip Rittaporn said Thaicom could also buy out Mfone’s other shareholders, though that strategy “has not been explored” yet.

He also sought to temper speculation about Mfone’s future, saying the company has for some time been researching its options so as to better position itself in the market. He cited previous merger talks with Hello and qb as specific examples of actions Mfone has taken, though those talks eventually fell through.

While qb officials could not be reached for comment yesterday, Hello CEO Simon Perkins acknowledged that discussions with Mfone had taken place previously. However, he reiterated his previous statement that Mfone had not since approached Hello about a possible merger.

Atip Rittaporn also said that while he could not comment for STT, he assumed they were committed to Mfone’s success.

“I don’t think they’re going to be away from Cambodia. They still have a very strong intention to stay in this market.”

Mfone CEO Yap Wai Khee said yesterday that strong support from its shareholders was “one of the key strengths” the company can leverage.

“Therefore, Mfone does not foresee any impact on its operations from the potential exit of a shareholder,” he said.

He called the shareholders “very supportive,” saying: “The decision whether to sell or not will probably be based on value creation to the shareholders, and also creating a much better and stronger Mfone in the future.”

Just who in fact buys Mfone, if a sale takes place, is up to those shareholders, he said.

Yap Wai Khee defended his company’s performance, citing Mfone’s near 20-year history in the Kingdom and its “sizeable loyal and high ARPU [Average Revenue Per User] customers”.

He blamed the decline in subscribers to other telcos not following the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications prakas on minimum pricing, which allowed competitors to draw away customers from Mfone.

Still, he claimed “most revenue generating subscribers stayed with Mfone”.

“Mfone as a standalone business is financially feasible,” he said.

Officials at STT said they had no comment about a potential sale of Mfone, while Thaicom officials did not immediately return a request for comment. source: the phnom penh post

(This blog to share important information about gestational diabetes diet)

Mfone's pricing plan draws controversy

2011-07-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

MOBILE service provider Mfone has launched the Kingdom’s latest unlimited calling plan, drawing criticism that it contravenes minimum pricing rules introduced by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in a 2009 prakas.

Mfone customers must top up in US$5 increments, with $3 for unlimited on-network calls for a month, while the remaining $2 applies to off-net calls, company employees at its headquarters on Phnom Penh’s Monivong Boulevard told The Post yesterday.

The plan mirrors one introduced by rival provider Hello earlier this year, which had drawn criticism from industry players.

However, Hello Chief Executive Officer Simon Perkins said yesterday the fact that Mfone is now offering its own unlimited calling plan is “the best form of flattery.”

“They’ve copied exactly what we’ve done,” he said, though he noted some of the pricing details were different.

Perkins also pointed out that Hello offered more variety in its plans, including unlimited calling per day for 20 cents and unlimited calling between 10pm and 10am for $1.

The 20-cent plan has been “extremely popular, and people drop in and out of them when it suits their purposes,” he said. The overnight plan is largely “teenagers talking to boyfriends and girlfriends all night.”

Mfone Chief Marketing Officer Sombat Krairit did not return a request for comment by The Post yesterday, though it is believed the firm’s unlimited plan has not yet been widely advertised.

The plan attracted controversy yesterday, with some industry insiders calling the move a violation of the ministry’s 2009 pricing rules, which set a minimum price per minute for on- and off-net calls.

“Mfone have elected to follow other operators offering such deals who also contravene the regulations, and this is having a detrimental impact on the whole industry, and especially those operators trying to work within the bounds of MPTC’s framework of rules overall,” said qb Chief Executive Officer Alan Sinfield.

“Such actions are, in my opinion, desperate and short-sighted and not at all welcome,” he said yesterday. Qb had halted its so-called “all you can eat” plans when the minimum pricing prakas was enacted, he added.

Sinfield said the MPTC should use its powers to suspend certain operators’ licences if they refuse to abide by established regulations.

“I sincerely hope that MPTC take such action for the benefit of the industry as a whole.”

Some telecom officials last month said the increased usage as a result of unlimited plans often hurts network capacity. Low tariffs also likely translate into negative returns in the effort to attract customers, despite the need for profitability in order to invest in new services and coverage expansion.

Industry insiders requesting anonymity said yesterday a number of the Kingdom’s operators are in talks with the MPTC to find ways to enforce the pricing prakas. They said one such discussion consisted of some operators blocking calls from the offending companies. However, discussions are in preliminary stages and any action would be strictly monitored by the MPTC, insiders said.

Minister of Post and Telecommunications So Khun declined to comment yesterday. Source: the phnom penh post

Mobile merger plans

2011-07-19T02:09:00.000-07:00

DIGITAL Star Media is in talks to acquire mobile operator Excell for an undisclosed amount, a move which is expected to bring some long-awaited consolidation to the Kingdom’s overcrowded telecommunications sector by month’s end.

Digital Star, which operates under its Emaxx brand and has announced plans to operate a fourth-generation mobile service by next year, aims to acquire Excell, the smallest of Cambodia’s eight mobile operators and the only one to employ CDMA2000 technology, company officials said yesterday.

Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications statistics show more than 99 percent of domestic mobile subscribers use GSM technology, but Digital Star Chief Operating Officer Frank May said CDMA allows for a faster transition to 4G, among other advantages, which will be crucial as data services grow in popularity.
“Data is growing exponentially,” he said. “So it is a good acquisition from our point of view.”

Digital Star is conducting due diligence, and “the final acquisition will be completed by the end of the month”, he added. He declined to specify the price of the deal, citing a non-disclosure agreement.

May said Digital Star will obtain Excell’s 28 cellphone towers and will continue expanding the network and its capabilities going forward. Partly through tower-sharing agreements, Digital Star aims for a presence in all 24 provinces by mid-2012, he said.

He touted what he saw as the numerous advantages of CDMA, including a longer signal reach than GSM. May said CMDA, which is used in bellwether markets like the US and China, is more cost effective when upgrading to or expanding 4G service as well.

May cited the development of Cambodia’s telecom industry as integral to attracting much-needed foreign investment to the country. Digital Star’s efforts to grow the Kingdom’s 4G capability were aiding that pursuit, he said.

“Things are on the move and changing in Cambodia. And they’re changing for the better.”

Others in the industry said they doubted May’s claims about the viability of CDMA2000, though.

Hello Chief Executive Officer Simon Perkins hailed the planned acquisition as a good thing for the crowded mobile sector, but questioned whether CDMA would gain traction in Cambodia.

CMDA technology does not use SIM cards, and Cambodian mobile users are well known to hold multiple SIMs at any given time, he said, adding there were fewer CDMA handsets available given the global predominance of GSM.

CDMA “just doesn’t have the scale to make sense for use from a consumer point of view”, Perkins said.

Still, he said CMDA could offer a viable strategy for a company focused largely on data services. Regardless, the adoption of 4G technology was still some ways off, and present 3G speeds were more than adequate for domestic consumers, he said.

“I’m not going to lose any sleep about having to build 4G networks for another five to 10 years,” he said.

Another rival, qb CEO Alan Sinfield, claimed GSM was a much more versatile technology, adding that in the battle between CDMA2000 and GSM for market supremacy, GSM had come out on top.

Therefore, it made little sense to him to buy a CDMA company, even if to expand a network.

“Let’s not even debate it. Game over. CDMA lost,” he said.

However, May claimed his strategy was competitive and that Digital Star would outlast many peers as consolidation in Cambodia’s mobile market plays out. “Whoever’s left standing, we will be one of them,” he said.

Excell Chief Executive Officer Biloliddin Salakhiddin uulu declined to comment yesterday. Source: the phnom penh post

Mobile phone revenues per user to decline

2011-07-01T23:48:00.000-07:00

Revenues per user in Cambodia’s mobile phone sector will drop sharply over the next five years, according to global research and consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan.

The company said the average revenue per user – ARPU, a key metric for the industry – would fall to US$3.68 in 2016 from $5.14 last year, as more and more lower-income Cambodians adopted the technology and increased competit-ion drove down revenues.

“The indication is that things will get worse,” Marc Einstein, Frost & Sullivan’s industry manager for information and communications technologies in the Asia-Pacific, said.

“Profitability growth declines over time in this industry.”

Einstein said the trend could be one catalyst for consolidat-ion in the sector, as less-profitable firms sought to merge with stronger competitors.

He noted that Frost & Sullivan’s figures were based on average revenue per SIM card, and not per person.

As many Cambodians use more than one SIM card, Einstein estimated the true ARPU figure might be 1.25 to 1.5 times higher than his listed projections.

Mobitel chief executive David Spriggs said ARPUs tended to decline as a company’s customer base grew, although this was usually offset by the overall growth of the market.

Spriggs agreed with Einstein, however, that intense pricing competition in the sector, as well as the specific demographic of new customers coming on line, had been the catalysts for ARPU declines in many markets. “It’s normal in markets where the penetrat-ion is driven by reaching out to lower-income customers that the average will go down,” he said.

Companies could be forced to consolidate, cut their costs or stabilise their pricing strategies in order to remain profitable in an environment with declining ARPUs, Spriggs said.

Hello Axiata marketing director Rozy Laxana agreed that average revenues per user would decline.

“Promotion-driven campaigns to attract new acquisit-ions and increase market share in a highly competitive marketplace will result in ARPUs declining further, fuelling the multi-SIM phenomenon to an even greater extent,” Laxana said.

She predicted Cambodia’s mobile operators would face higher churn rates and an increased cost of acquiring customers, leading to lower ARPUs across the board.

As a result, operators might find it more difficult to invest in new products and services, which could affect Cambod-ian consumers as a whole, she said.

Laxana said she expected local operators would look to the mobile-data area for new revenue streams.

Richer content and an increasingly tech-savvy consumer base had served to fuel growth in that part of the business, she said.

“This trend is also beginning to gain traction in Cambodia. At Hello, we have seen a tremendous uptake in our mobile data and BlackBerry services during the past year,” Laxana said. Source: the Phnom Penh Post

Minister points to telecoms investment

2011-06-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

TOTAL investment in Cambodia’s telecom infrastructure had reached US$1.5 billion by 2010, Minister of Post and Telecommunications So Khun claimed yesterday.

As a result, the Kingdom now boasted more than 22,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cables and three international gateways, he said during a meeting with International Telecommunications Union (ITU) secretary-general Hamadoun Touré in Phnom Penh, according to a copy of his speech obtained yesterday.

“Cambodia has seen a fast and remarkable evolution in information and communication technologies in the last few years thanks to the open and free market in this sector and active participation from the private sector,” So Khun said.

The investment estimate figure included Royal Group’s intention to launch the country’s first satellite in early 2013, at a cost of between $250 million and $350 million.

“The Royal Government of Cambodia has approved … Royal Blue Skies to invest in this technology in order to enhance the quality and efficiency of the ICT applications and services,” he said, referring to information and communications technology.

The minister called on the ITU for assistance in launching the satellite, while also pointing to the Kingdom’s ICT development over recent years.

He claimed 13 million subscribers, or 91 per cent of Cambodia’s population of 14.3 mill-ion, used either a mobile or fixed phone service as of April 30. Some industry insiders have expressed doubts on the ministry’s subscriber numbers. Source: The Phnom Penh Post

Hello price plan raises discussion

2011-06-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

MOBILE company Hello has drawn criticism from competitors and customers for its recent prepaid plans, saying low rates are unsustainable and are causing network congestion.

However, its Chief Executive Officer Simon Perkins yesterday stood by the tariff, saying the promotion has proven successful and the firm was improving its network.

Hello has offered a number of prepaid plans with unlimited on-network calling, most recently charging $3 a month. While customers have complained that Hello’s network is now overcrowded, its competitors have questioned the financial viability of the strategy.

“Unlimited voice or data packages on mobile networks are devastating. It’s not sustainable,” Smart Mobile CEO Thomas Hundt said.
The increased usage as a result of these plans tends to drag on network capacity, he said, adding low tariffs likely meant the firm is losing money in an effort to attract customers.

Mobitel General Manager David Spriggs said a level of profitability was required that allows operators to invest in new services and coverage expansion.

Some local mobile phone shops, as well as Hello customers, have described similar problems with the company’s service.

Chhian Heng, a manager at Hakse phone shop on Norodom Boulevard, said calls on Hello’s network has been “very difficult for two months since the promotion began.”

Ung Sivthong, a Hello customer who works at Olympic Thmey Handphone Shop on Norodom Boulevard, claimed it has been increasingly difficult to make calls after 9 pm. He switches to a second phone with a Metfone SIM card when his Hello handset no longer works, he said.

However, Hello’s Simon Perkins said the company has been successful with its plans to charge a flat rate per month. The firm has invested in its network to meet the new demand from the pricing plan, with some upgrades finished on Monday, he said. “Largely those issues have gone away,” he added.

The plan is also providing revenue for the firm. “The interesting thing is we do make money. We have a regular income stream from people who subscribe from those packages,” he said, adding the company’s market share continues to grow.

Perkins also responded to claims by rival firms that Hello has ignored a Ministry of Post and Telecommunications prakas outlining a minimum price per minute for calls, enacted in late 2009. He said Hello appealed to the ministry when a number of companies continued to offer prices below those dictated by the prakas.

Hello eventually offered the MPTC an ultimatum when the ministry failed to enforce the law: either do so, or Hello also would ignore the prakas. “We decided to take the action we did in early 2011, which was to go out there with a pricing plan that was going to give the market a surprise,” he said.

Perkins said he has no plans to stop the firm’s promotions. “Realistically the ball is in MPTC’s court. They know how we feel.”

Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun yesterday declined to comment. Source: The Phnom Penh Post

Mobile competition now moving online

2011-06-20T22:55:00.000-07:00

AMONG the most competitive mobile phone sectors on the planet, Cambodia in January saw nine operators drop to eight competing for just 15 million people when Smart Mobile merged with Star Cell in a market that has mostly competed on call charges over the past two years.

But news last week that Smart Mobile is set to roll out 3.75G mobile internet across the country by the end of next month confirms the mobile sector is increasingly engaging in a full-on battle to deliver the fastest web access as the country remains devoid of a logical, transparent licensing process.

With its new faster mobile internet, Smart Mobile has moved to the front of the sector in terms of technology including Mobitel, Hello and qb. Hello claims to run its 3.5G wireless modem at speeds of up to 3.6 megabits per minute, while qb has claimed speeds of 14.4 mbps since January, which would be matched by Smart Mobile’s new service. But this position may not last much longer – new operator Emaxx has said it plans to launch 4G mobile internet next year at what would be even faster connection speeds.

While these multiple investments are all good for competition and therefore certainly the consumer – Cambodia’s mobile internet speeds have accelerated over a very short space of time – for the companies involved the playing field remains uncertain.

Even though the area of completion is expanding, the question remains: are these operators developing a long-term competitive advantage that will see them carve out greater market share and sustainable profits?

Or are they digging themselves in a bigger financial hole in a hugely competitive market that still has overlapping bandwidth, no telecoms law, no separate regulator and zero licensing transparency?

Emaxx is a case in point. After an overlapping-bandwidth issue, its chief operating offi-cer, Frank May, told The Post in March that Viettel and Russian firm Altech had also been awarded 4G licences.

Countries such as India and Thailand have cleaned up their licensing processes, giving operators a clear understanding of who their competitors are, but in Cambodia this informat-ion remains hazy.

That means all are essentially developing multi-million dollar wireless infrastructure without knowing whether another company is negotiating the latest-technology licence with the sector’s supposed regulator, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

For companies such as Smart, these investments are a calculated risk. They hope that, by investing to stay ahead of the game, they will generate a competitive advantage that will aid long-term survival.

But we won’t know how this evolving mobile internet competition plays out until the 4G service providers launch in coming months. Meanwhile, operators that have staked claims on the market by investing in lesser technology will be hoping they can still compete. Source: The Phnom Penh Post

Mobile top ups move beyond scratch cards

2011-06-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

Mobile service providers are looking beyond the scratch card for methods of adding credit to prepaid mobile phone accounts.

ANZ Royal Bank inked an agreement with operator Beeline on Wednesday allowing top ups at the Bank’s ATM network, which ANZ Royal CEO Stephen Higgins said will cut down on scratch cards.

“This service eliminates the use of scratch cards, which is a tremendous step in the right direction for both banks and mobile network operators to provide more simplistic and convenient services to their customers,” said ANZ Royal CEO Stephen Higgins said.

While scratch cards have become ubiquitous in Cambodia, mobile companies and retail phone shops alike have pointed out challenges in their use.

Scratch cards are printed outside the country, imported and then distributed to wholesalers and retail shops, said Smart Mobile CEO Thomas Hundt.

“From a logistical standpoint, scratch cards are an issue,” he said.

The handling required, and even the environmental impact of the excessive amount of paper used, weighs on mobile providers.

Smart signed an agreement with ANZ Royal allowing top ups at some of its ATMs in May 2010, though it and other operators continue to use scratch cards as a proven method of topping up accounts.

Even if the costs of getting those cards to customers may be higher than desired, in the end they are still generating overall revenue for Smart, Hundt said.

For shopkeepers along a stretch of phone shops on Sihanouk Boulevard, the problem is one of profit margins.

Billy Lim, who works at a Hakse store in the area, said he earns “only a little bit” on scratch card sales. Hakse will buy a US$50 card for $47.50, which assumes a profit of $2.50 per card. But competition among area stores can drive the face value down to $48 – leaving just $0.50 a card in profits.

Other shop owners described similar issues. But they continue to offer scratch cards because they are part of an overall stable of phone-related products they deliver to customers, they said.

“What if people need scratch cards and we don’t sell them?” asked He Sophavy at IndoChina mobile phone shop, adding that it’s better to have them than not to.

Whether or not phone companies and shops find them difficult, scratch cards may still be the best way to serve customers, said Bun Tharum, a technology specialist and occasional contributor to The Post.

He cited their convenience overall as the main reason they stay in circulation.

Card sellers are much more prevalent than ATMs, he said, and the cards themselves don’t have to be bought by the eventual user.

Beeline General Director Gael Campan did not return request for comment.

Source: The Phnom Penh Post

Hello parent wins award

2011-06-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

HELLO’S parent Axiata Group was named “Best Telecom Group of the Year” for 2011 by research and consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan, the Malaysia-based telecom has announced. This is the third year in a row that Axiata has won the category, which is a part of Frost & Sullivan’s Asia Pacific ICT Awards, the company said in a statement. Hello chief executive Simon Perkins congratulated Axiata Group and pointed to the parent company’s role in shaping his Cambodian operations. Axiata’s “strength across the region opens up many opportunities for Hello to tap on in terms of connectivity, technology and talent’’, he said. Frost & Sullivan industry manager for Asia-Pacific ICT Marc Einstein said Axiata had brought in US$5.1 billion in revenues for 2010, a 17 per cent jump from the year before. source: the phnom penh post

Smart takes the net mobile

2011-06-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

SMART Mobile’s 3.75G service seeks to capitalise on the coming boom in the Kingdom’s mobile internet market, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hundt said.

Experts put Cambodia’s internet penetration at less than 1 percent, and there are still many part of the country that Internet Service Providers have yet to reach. Hundt said internet-enabled phones will fill those gaps.

“Internet is still in, unfortunately, small shoes here in Cambodia,” the CEO said. “That’s why mobile internet is a technology which is definitely having a big future.”

Smart has soft launched its 3.75G service over the past week in 21 provinces, and plans to service the remaining three – Mondulkiri, Oddar Meancheay, Preah Vihear – by the end of July.

Hundt said the company has used add-on technologies to increase the more common third-generation wireless speeds, or 3G, to 3.75G.

He claimed Smart’s internet-enabled phones can now reach download speeds of 14.4 megabits per second or higher, while uploads are as fast as 5.76 Mbps.

“What the ISPs are offering is still 256 [kilobits per second] or 512 [kilobits per second] at pretty high prices,” he said, which are much slower speeds.

Consumers would have to pay ISPs even more for the connection speeds Smart is offering, he said.

The 3.75G launch is one of many Smart initiatives since merging in January with Applifone’s Star-Cell.

According to Hundt, the integration process is largely done except for an update of the company’s 2G and 3G networks, which will be finished in July.

Hundt touted the “sizable subscriber growth” Smart has seen even during that integration, estimating his subscriber base was 1.1 million customers.

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications’ figures for April showed Smart with 880,000 customers, or a 7-percent market share. But Hundt said some operators may be inflating the figures they report to the ministry. He called Metfone’s growth to 4.2 million subscribers in December 2010 from 2.8 million the month before “practically impossible”.

He also was skeptical of the MPTC reporting 12.4 million total active subscribers in Cambodia for April.

He estimated the number was between 6 million and 7 million people, given the potential for flawed reporting and consumers’ habit of using multiple SIM cards.

While the MPTC’s April report ranked Smart fifth among the Kingdom’s nine mobile operators, Hundt said his company was most likely third or fourth.

“This depends always on how good and how realistic Hello’s figures are,” he said. “We are head to head in the development of subscribers.”

Hello’s customer base in April reached 1.2 million subscribers, or 10 percent of the market, according to the MPTC report.

Hello CEO Simon Perkins rejected suggestions that his company’s subscriber numbers were inflated.

“Unlike Smart, or Metfone, or Mobitel for that matter, we are a part of a listed company, and as such are subject to independent audit, and you will see our numbers are reported in Axiata’s audited results,” he said. “So no, our numbers are not boosted as they would not pass audit.”

Still, Smart’s goal is to become “a solid number three” at least partly through organic growth, Hundt said. The company hopes to capture the 7 million potential customers he guessed don’t yet own mobile phones.
“The market is by far not saturated yet,” he said. Source: the Phnom Penh Post

Beeline buzzes a subscriber boost

2011-06-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

BEELINE’S parent company VimpelCom claimed a 54-percent jump year-over-year in active subscriptions for Cambodia in its first quarter results released yesterday.

The Amsterdam-based telecom firm also reported that revenues soared 73 percent compared to the same period in 2010, while quarter-on-quarter subscriber numbers and revenues increased 16 percent and 11 percent, respectively. However, the firm did not release seperate figure for subscribers or revenues in the Kingdom.

“The development of our business in Cambodia continues to evolve rapidly,” VimpelCom said.

“Network quality, effective marketing campaigns and a pro-active approach to distribution helped further improve our market position and substantially improve our cash flow.”

Net operating mobile revenues for the Southeast Asia region – which includes Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam – reached US$10 million for the quarter, up 127 percent from the year-ago period. The firm said its Southeast Asian presence was bolstered by recent moves in Laos and Vietnam, including purchasing a majority stake in Millicom Lao Company and increased financing of its Vietnam operations.

Meanwhile, Hello’s parent Axiata also reported quarterly earnings this week. The Malaysia-listed company said Hello saw revenue growth from higher prepaid usage and devices sales, according to a company statement on Tuesday.

The Cambodian mobile operator’s revenues advanced 6 percent and subscriptions up 19 percent from the fourth quarter 2010.

Source: the Phnom Penh Post

Hello waves on growth

2011-06-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

EMPHASIS on organic growth in Cambodia’s overcrowded mobile market may have waned as consolidation is increasingly viewed as the best path to growth, according to one industry insider.

While Axiata-owned Hello has launched a spate of promotions to attract customers since February, few of its competitors followed suit, its Chief Executive Officer Simon Perkins said.

“I think what we’ve seen is the appetite for the fight weakening,” he said.

“So we’ve come up into this number-three position fairly strongly because the others haven’t responded.”

Hello’s fight for customer attention – in a market that comprises eight operators – has been largely focused on price cuts and the introduction of new phones, Perkins said.

Handsets have become “very effective as an acquisition mechanism,” he said, especially dual SIM phones. The firm has also introduced fixed line phones, aiming at a rural and SME demographic.

However, Hello has also successfully marketed high-end models like the Blackberry Torch.

The company is promoting services such as roaming for prepaid and data subscribers, in addition to adding more and more post-paid corporate customers, Perkins said. Hello now counts ACLEDA, Naga and Microsoft, and a number of Chinese mining companies, among its enterprise clients.

Perkins chalked up the relative silence in the mobile market to several factors. He said Metfone, the sector’s largest player by subscriber numbers, would see a noticeable drop in its revenues if the company were to offer the same level of price cutting given by Hello.

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications’ figures for April showed Viettel’s Metfone as having 5.7 million active subscribers, versus 2.9 million for Mobitel’s Cellcard and 1.18 million for Hello. As a result, Perkins said his promotions have a smaller impact on revenues.

“It’s a bit less of an issue for us,” he said. “I can do it as a challenger.”

However, some in the industry questioned whether deep discounting would prove successful.

Smart Mobile Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hundt yesterday acknowledged that Hello had held promotions since February, but said “the sustainability of some of these promotions is however very much questionable.”

Smart held a number of promotions and activities fostering continuous growth in recent months, he said, adding the firm had exceeded one million subscribers.

Meanwhile, Perkins said Royal Group’s attempts to sell a majority stake in Cellcard hadotherwise distracted the company from growing its business, adding that would change if a deal was completed.

However, Mobitel General Manager David Spriggs yesterday pushed back against those statements, saying the firm actively worked to strengthen its market position.

“We continue to market very aggressively within the regulations set by the MPTC. We’re offering competitive services to all our customers,” he said, adding Cellcard has seen no drop in its customer base.

Hello would need to make a sizable acquisition to overtake Mobitel and the industry’s number-two spot, Perkins claimed, saying his firm couldn’t grow enough organically to do so.

He said he hadn’t ruled out a possible purchase of Mobitel, but “criteria about corporate governance must meet all the requirements for a listed business” before that happens.

Among the mobile sector, Perkins pointed to Thaicom-held Mfone as an “ideal fit” for Hello, though he doubted the company was properly valued right now. He said he would take another look at Mfone after Thailand’s elections in early July.

Cambodia should have only three or four telecom firms given the country’s small population, according to Perkins.

Going forward, consolidation – or closing shop entirely – may be the only option for some of Cambodia’s mobile companies, as he doubted they were generating a profit, he said.

“What’s stopping them doing that? It’s difficult for people to concede defeat.”

Source: the Phnom Penh Post

Cellcard Cash compliant, at last

2011-05-20T08:20:00.001-07:00

“THIS issue is all over now so I’m not looking back,” Kay Lot, Mobitel’s Chief Operating Officer, said yesterday after the central bank last week finally licensed Cellcard Cash to accept remittances.

But after eight months of testing the patience of the National Bank of Cambodia, the funders of the programme The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and indeed the rest of the sector, why did Mobitel feel it was above the law in the first place?

Following the NBC’s edict on August 27 that it must regulate credit admittances – which clearly include mobile money transfers – Mobitel has continually tried to take short cuts that have only served to undermine the authority of the central bank and call into question its ability to regulate the industry.

To be fair to the NBC, it has largely passed the test, but Mobitel’s actions have only served to again remind investors in Cambodia that detailed, comprehensive legislation in many industries is still lacking, and enforcement even more so.

After launching Cellcard Cash in September, despite being made aware it was non-compliant with NBC licensing regulations, the operator continued to seek out customers with adverts in the local press in December and January calling on Cambodians to “activate your Cellcard Cash service now!”

This campaign also included text messages to Mobitel users advertising its new money transfer product along with billboards in Phnom Penh.

This again tested the central bank, which on February 24 ordered Mobitel to stop advertising and accepting new customers, NBC Director General Nguon Sokha told The Post on Thursday.
“We try to bring everyone under the same roof,” she said.

The problem for Mobitel was, of course, that while it was effectively banned from operating, WING and ACLEDA were busy accumulating customers with their own similar, licensed products. Herein lay the key point of tension.

Although the central bank needed to regulate the industry, it was also in a position where it had to avoid essentially killing a service that would offer competition in an industry that provides a valuable service to the Cambodian public. And one that has proven immensely profitable in many areas of Africa and Pakistan in particular – mobile money has become big business.

“Everything cannot be 100-percent perfect,” said Ngoun Sokha of the Cellcard Cash debacle. “Sometimes we have to be flexible.”

Although Kay Lot said he did not know whether Mobitel had been in full compliance with the directive on February 24, calling it an order to “reduce advertising activities”, Ngoun Sokha said the NBC was “satisfied with their reaction”. Certainly Cellcard Cash adverts in Cambodia’s English-language press stopped after February 24.

For Cambodia’s central bank, the Cellcard Cash farce has at least provided a test case and precedent with which to build and continue improved oversight and there is no doubt the NBC has built up its capacity to act as a regulator in recent years.

For Mobitel it’s back to business. But after taking a host of debilitating short cuts, can it compete in Cambodia’s electronic cash transfer market? Source: the phnom penh post

Mfone to add users in tough industry

2011-05-16T02:47:00.001-07:00

MFONE majority owner Thaicom said the Cambodian teleco’s subscriber numbers increased 5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, despite fierce competition in the sector.

Mfone subscribers in the first three months of 2011 totalled just over 698,000, up 4.9 percent from the same period last year, according to first quarter earnings figures released late last week.

Meanwhile, Thaicom’s first-quarter revenues from its telephone divisions – which also includes Lao Telecommunications Company – fell to 321 million baht (US$10.6 million) from 452 million baht, or 29 percent, in the first quarter of 2010.

Its results came in the face of a difficult business environment for mobile providers in the Kingdom, the firm said.

“Currently, there are 9 mobile operators in Cambodia, leading to a price war and intense competition in the market, and a decline [in] revenue per minute usage,” the statement said.

Thaicom also said the rising value of the baht against the US dollar – the currency in which Mfone reports its financial statements – lowered its revenues presented in baht.

But compared to the prior quarter, telephone revenue was up by 8 million baht, or 2.6 percent, Thaicom said.

Mfone officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Thaicom closed on Friday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 8.10 baht (US$0.267), near its 52-week high of 8.90 per share. Source: the phnom penh post

Mobile markets: Vimpelcom expands in Vietnam

2011-05-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

THE parent company of mobile operator Beeline announced yesterday it would provide as much as US$500 million in financing for its Vietnamese joint venture, GTEL-Mobile Stock Co, through 2013.

Vimpelcom has already paid $196 million of the $500 million for newly issued shares from GTEL-Mobile, which is a partnership between Vimpelcom and Vietnam’s GTEL. At the close of financing, Vimpelcom will own 65 percent of GTEL-Mobile though the additional $304 million and the equity increase depend on conditions, according to a company statement.

“We look forward to relaunching our operations in Vietnam and to strengthening our position in the high-potential Southeast Asia cluster,” said Alexey Blyumin, General Director of GTEL-Mobile.

Vimpelcom is majority owner of Cambodia’s Beeline, and completed its acquisition of 78 percent of Millicom Lao Company last month.

Source: the Phnom Penh Post

Mobile top ups move beyond scratch cards

2011-04-24T02:19:00.000-07:00

While scratch cards have become ubiquitous in Cambodia, mobile companies and retail phone shops alike have pointed out challenges in their use.

Scratch cards are printed outside the country, imported and then distributed to wholesalers and retail shops, said Smart Mobile CEO Thomas Hundt.

“From a logistical standpoint, scratch cards are an issue,” he said.

The handling required, and even the environmental impact of the excessive amount of paper used, weighs on mobile providers.

Smart signed an agreement with ANZ Royal allowing top ups at some of its ATMs in May 2010, though it and other operators continue to use scratch cards as a proven method of topping up accounts.

Even if the costs of getting those cards to customers may be higher than desired, in the end they are still generating overall revenue for Smart, Hundt said.

For shopkeepers along a stretch of phone shops on Sihanouk Boulevard, the problem is one of profit margins.

Billy Lim, who works at a Hakse store in the area, said he earns “only a little bit” on scratch card sales. Hakse will buy a US$50 card for $47.50, which assumes a profit of $2.50 per card. But competition among area stores can drive the face value down to $48 – leaving just $0.50 a card in profits.

Other shop owners described similar issues. But they continue to offer scratch cards because they are part of an overall stable of phone-related products they deliver to customers, they said.

“What if people need scratch cards and we don’t sell them?” asked He Sophavy at IndoChina mobile phone shop, adding that it’s better to have them than not to.

Whether or not phone companies and shops find them difficult, scratch cards may still be the best way to serve customers, said Bun Tharum, a technology specialist and occasional contributor to The Post.

He cited their convenience overall as the main reason they stay in circulation.

Card sellers are much more prevalent than ATMs, he said, and the cards themselves don’t have to be bought by the eventual user.

Beeline General Director Gael Campan did not return request for comment. Source: The Phnom Penh Post

Smart to launch 3G service next month

2011-04-06T17:05:00.001-07:00

SMART Mobile plans to launch 3G service next month, while its merger with Star-Cell has largely wrapped up, according to Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hundt.

“We are developing nicely, with momentum from the merger,” he said, adding its 3G in particular was “an extremely nice add-on.”

The firm aims to operate the 3G service in all 24 provinces by year’s end, though it will initially be available in major centres such as Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang after its May launch, he said.

Calling it a “substantial deployment,” Hundt declined to reveal the number of towers or speeds, citing competition concerns, but described it as “from our perspective the fastest one in Cambodia.”

Smart Mobile has also largely completed its integration with Star-Cell, following a merger that was announced in December 2010, said Hundt.

Holders of Star-Cell SIMs can top up via Smart scratch cards, and Star-Cell scratch cards are being phased out. Branding is also being changed over to Smart Mobile.

The merged firm is 75-percent controlled by Smart’s owners, Cyprus-based Timeturns Holdings, and the remaining 25 percent is owned by Star-Cell’s parent TeliaSonera AB.

Smart also plans to roll out a WiMAX network by the end of April. WiMAX is a “last mile” method of internet access where connections are established wirelessly at long range.

Its frequencies are not in the range of those affected in the overlapping frequency dispute that has publicly frustrated some providers, Hundt said. Last year, several companies said their licenses in the 2.5GHz to 2.7GHz range were given to another company, Digital Star Media. That firm rejected the claim last week, saying it was the first to receive the licence for the frequency range.

Additionally, Thomas Hundt said Smart’s WiMAX roll-out gained an advantage by having much of the necessary infrastructure already in place from its mobile operations.

“Therefore we can deploy the WiMAX network at extremely favourable costs at the end,” he said.

“We have the towers, we have the fiber optic, we have the entire infrastructure, so the WiMAX is in this respect just another kind of last-mile exit.”

This would mean the network would cost less than a purely WiMAX operator, with savings passed on to the marketplace, he said. source: Phnom Penh Post

Mobile numbers don’t add up

2011-03-11T09:01:00.000-08:00

How many mobile phone users are there in Cambodia?

According to Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun this week there are now some 9.8 million subscribers, a figure that is publicly supported by the majority of the Kingdom’s eight operators. After all, they provided the numbers.

But privately, every mobile phone executive in Cambodia knows there is nowhere near this level of penetration.

If Cambodia does indeed have 9.8 million mobile users, or 66 percent penetration, then the Kingdom would currently rank above China (64 percent) and India (60 percent).

There is no doubt Cambodia’s level of mobile penetration is growing but the reality is clearly a lot more sober than the government and private sector would lead us to believe.

Based on reported active user numbers supplied by each mobile phone company, the official calculation becomes hugely distorted as operators continue to try to convince everyone including themselves they have an elevated level of user growth and market share.

Calculations are usually based on there being one activity on any given SIM in a given timeframe, and usually this is defined as a paid-for rather than a free promotional call.

The problem is that some companies set this time frame at one month and others at up to three months, meaning the definition of an active mobile user in Cambodia is often anything but.

In reality, of course, Cambodians are simply switching out multiple SIMs to get the best deals.

Last year, Vimplecom Ltd reported significantly different numbers for the second quarter to its shareholders, when compared to those submitted to the government by its Cambodian operation Beeline.

When asked yesterday: How many mobile users are there in Cambodia? Beeline, qb, Viettel and Smart Mobile all failed to respond.

Based on the definition of one revenue-generating event on any one SIM in the last 30 days, Hello Chief Executive Officer Simon Perkins estimated there are currently between 4.5 million and 5 million “active users” in Cambodia.

But this definition hardly represents mobile penetration in terms of the total number of people actually using a mobile phone in Cambodia today.

In reality, an average mobile user makes multiple calls on a daily basis.

A calculation that can capture this truth – however difficult – would represent the real level of mobile penetration in Cambodia.

In the meantime, Vietnamese-run operator Viettel claimed it had some 2.84 million active users in November making it number one in Cambodia.

When you cut through the PR, this figure is probably closer to the total number of mobile phone users in the whole of the country on all networks.

Source: The Phnom Penh Post

Mobitel set to partner UCB

2011-03-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

Mobitel is in talks with Union Commercial Bank to process its customers’ mobile phone money transactions in order to meet legal requirements from the National Bank of Cambodia.

Mobitel controversially launched its Cellcard Cash money transfer scheme last September without applying for oversight or linking with a bank for payment processing, as stipulated in an NBC edict.

It has since held discussions with the central bank working towards obtaining the licence. Officials today confirmed that progress is being made.

“We [Mobitel and UCB] have already approved each other in principle for the deal.

“Now we are just waiting to receive approval from the NBC,” said UCB senior manager Chear Ratana today.

Meanwhile, NBC has pushed back its deadline for Mobitel to submit to its oversight by two months.

According the central bank’s director general and spokeswoman Nguon Sokha, the company has until April to complete the required paperwork and partner with a bank or financial institution.

It had previously set a February deadline for Mobitel to meet its requirements.

“We hope to reach a good solution that will satisfy all parties,” she said, declining to confirm Mobitel’s partner.

She added that while the central bank was in talks with Mobitel it was also conducting exploratory discussions with an unnamed company interested in launching a similar scheme.

Mobitel had received an undisclosed amount of funding for Cellcard Cash from the Mobile Money for the Unbanked programme, which had been funded largely from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

MMU spokeswoman Claire Crandon confirmed today that Mobitel’s funding was frozen due to the oversight issues, adding that the money transfer service continued to be available in Cambodia.

“No further disbursements have been given from the MMU Fund to [Mobitel’s parent company] CamGSM until the regulators have given approval of the service,” she said.

Mobitel chief executive officer David Spriggs declined to comment on the firm’s discussions with UCB today.

ANZ Bank-owned Wing received the first licence from the NBC to launch a mobile money transfer service in December.

Acting chief executive officer of Wing, Lee-Anne Pitcaithly, said the firm supported the NBC, calling it a “very fair and judicious overseer, with a strong focus on ensuring the integrity of the payments system and limiting the possibility of the payments system being used for improper purposes”.

ACLEDA Bank also offers banking over mobile phones through its ACLEDA Unity programme.

ACLEDA executive vice president So Phonnary said the bank had been careful to seek NBC approval. ADDITIONAL REPORTING MAY KUNMAKARA

Source: the phnom penh post

Hello’s profits fall 58 percent

2011-02-24T05:09:00.000-08:00

MOBILE operator Hello saw its profit after tax fall by 58 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with the previous three months, according to a presentation from parent firm Axiata Group released yesterday.

Subscribers climbed 16 percent while revenues declined 3 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with the quarter before, the results showed.

While Axiata did not detail specific dollar amounts for Cambodia, the group echoed comments by many in claiming the service provider market is overcrowded. Hello continues “to face competitive challenges in an over-crowded market”, Axiata stated yesterday.

In November, the most recent month for which statistics gathered by the government are available, Hello claimed 870,000 subscribers, placing it as the third largest provider before the merger between Smart and Star-Cell.

Meanwhile, the firm also unveiled a new pricing scheme yesterday, termed “Hello Laor”, offering unlimited on-net calls for either a daily or a monthly fee.

Chief Executive Officer Simon Perkins was quoted as saying in the release that the pricing plans would lower costs for customers. Perkins could not be reached for further comment yesterday.

Axiata Group as a whole also fell into the red for the latest quarter after booking a 1.1-billion-ringgit (US$356-million) impairment stemming from its investment in India’s India Cellular Ltd yesterday, reflecting the intense competition from new operators, it said in a statement.

The impairment contributed to a 367-million-ringgit group loss at Axiata for the three months ending December 31, compared with a 558.3-million-ringgit profit a year earlier, the Kuala Lumpur-based company said.

Axiata had also previously announced an impairment on the goodwill of Hello Axiata of 49 million ringgit. Axiata fell 1.2 percent to 4.98 ringgit at 4:17pm in Kuala Lumpur trading yesterday.

Source: the phnom penh post

Phone operator-Mfone- lost US$13 million

2011-02-20T07:23:00.001-08:00

The majority owners of Cambodian mobile phone provider Mfone lost more than US$13 million in the Kingdom last year.

Pointing to the large number of mobile operators active in Cambodia, Thaicom said there was a “price war and intense competition in the market” in its annual report, which added an appreciating Thai baht as a factor in the loss.

The Bangkok-listed company claimed a loss of 405 million baht (US$13.2 million) in its Cambodia results for 2010, on revenues of 959 million baht.

This compares with a 7.6 million baht profit in the Kingdom in 2009, on 1.514 billion baht in revenues, the report released late last week stated.

The firm also announced an adjusted net book value for Mfone’s property and equipment to about 2.317 billion baht as of December 31, a 22 percent drop on the 2.972 billion baht it had claimed the previous year.

Thaicom did not discuss the reason for the downwards adjustment in Cambodia, but said globally its property, plant and equipment had also declined in value by 8.7 percent.

This decrease was “mostly due to depreciation and amortisation expenses in 2010”, it said.

Thaicom’s Cambodia operations had contributed 20.7 percent of its overall revenues in 2009, but had declined to 14 percent of the company’s global revenues in 2010, according to the report.

The declining value of the US dollar against the Thai baht last year impacted Mfone’s bottom line, as it generates much of its revenue in greenbacks.

“The appreciation of baht has caused lower revenue from the telephone business in Cambodia in baht as Mfone reported financial statements in US dollars,” the report said.

Despite a new strategic approach launched last year which saw Mfone increasingly target specific market niches by tailoring plans to groups such as young people and Muslims, user numbers also declined over 2010.

Mfone claimed 723,860 subscribers at the end of December 2010, a 15.8 percent decline on the 860,089 subscribers at the end of 2009.

Previous Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications statistics showed that Mfone had 660,000 subscribers last November.

Last year, former Mfone chief executive officer Adisai Soonthornratanarak had said the firm had previously “struggled” with competitive pricing among mobile operators, but said “differentiating yourself is the key to success”.

Thaicom is the 51-percent owner of Mfone.

The remainder is owned through a joint venture between Qatar Telecom and ST Telemedia of Singapore, according to Thaicom’s website.

It also owns 100-percent of satellite television provider Cambodian DTV Network Limited.

Cambodia has eight active mobile operators following a merger earlier this year between Smart Mobile and Star-Cell, with the combined company operating under the Smart brand.

At the announcement of the merger last month, Smart chief executive officer Thomas Hundt said the sector was likely overcrowded – a widely-held view in the industry – adding there were few countries with as many mobile operators relative to the number of people as Cambodia.

Company officials have confirmed that Yap Wai Khee is now serving as Mfone chief executive officer, after taking over the helm from Adisai Soonthornratanarak.

He could not be reached for comment today.

Source: the phnom penh post

qb boosts network speed

2011-02-19T15:56:00.001-08:00

Mobile operator qb claims to have increased its network nationwide to “3.75G” speeds, and is looking to introduce 2G service, according to chief executive officer Alan Sinfield.

“We’re looking to improve our footprint by providing quality data and voice on a national level,” he said yesterday.

The company has increased its network’s speeds to 14.4 megabits per second after a previous run at 7.2 megabits per second, he said.

Sinfield did not reveal the cost of the upgrade, but said it involved “a fair amount of investment.”

The project had been completed last month, and involved upgrading software and improving backhaul connections.

The faster speeds were available on its network – including in the capital as well as cities such as Battambang and Siem Reap and along major roads, he said.

The firm presently holds a 3G licence but no 2G licence, according to a Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications presentation from last month.

Sinfield said qb was looking at ways to provide 2G services as well.

“We’re working on a number of scenarios to provide 2G to our subscribers,” he said yesterday, while not elaborating further.

Smartphone demand rises

2011-01-25T08:25:00.000-08:00

Cambodian consumers are increasingly purchasing higher-end phone handsets, according to industry experts.

“Consumers are definitely very savvy and we can see they are updated with the latest and coolest [handsets],” said mobile provider Hello’s marketing manager Gary Foo on Thursday. “We recognise consumer trends [are] moving towards smartphones.”

Hello was the first service provider to introduce Blackberry handsets to the Kingdom two years ago and has launched two new models this week – the white Blackberry Bold 9780 and the Blackberry Curve 9300 phones.

Hello now has five different Blackberry models available from Canadian handset manufacturer Research in Motion.

Data demand

Gary Foo said Hello was seeing strong demand for its data services, though voice related calls were now its main revenue driver. Declining to give the exact number of data users, he said figures were growing healthily and were encouraging.

“Voice will continue to be the majority revenue contribution so it will take time, but nonetheless [data services are] something we would continue to invest in,” he said.

“The challenge is keeping up with consumers’ ever changing trends.”

The move towards smartphones was most evident in major cities and among businessmen, he said.

A number of other companies providing smartphones have recently made pushes into the Kingdom.

Nokia and LG push

South Korean handset manufacturer LG opened an outlet on Mao Tse Toung Boulevard last year, while Finland’s Nokia also opened its first office in Cambodia in 2010.
Nokia Business Development Manager for Cambodia and Laos Mohammed Mesbahuddin said that most of the major international handset brands were now present in Cambodia. Data services were becoming a key driver in how companies sold handsets, he said.

“Mobile internet will overcome fixed internet [on computers] in a short period of time,” he said. “It’s already happening in [other parts of] Asia.”

Nokia launched a new data handset in Cambodia this week, the X2-01, which is aimed at a younger demographic.

Mobile numbers don’t add up

2011-01-25T08:24:00.000-08:00

How many mobile phone users are there in Cambodia?
According to Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun this week there are now some 9.8 million subscribers, a figure that is publicly supported by the majority of the Kingdom’s eight operators. After all, they provided the numbers.

But privately, every mobile phone executive in Cambodia knows there is nowhere near this level of penetration.

If Cambodia does indeed have 9.8 million mobile users, or 66 percent penetration, then the Kingdom would currently rank above China (64 percent) and India (60 percent).

There is no doubt Cambodia’s level of mobile penetration is growing but the reality is clearly a lot more sober than the government and private sector would lead us to believe.

Based on reported active user numbers supplied by each mobile phone company, the official calculation becomes hugely distorted as operators continue to try to convince everyone including themselves they have an elevated level of user growth and market share.

Calculations are usually based on there being one activity on any given SIM in a given timeframe, and usually this is defined as a paid-for rather than a free promotional call.

The problem is that some companies set this time frame at one month and others at up to three months, meaning the definition of an active mobile user in Cambodia is often anything but.

In reality, of course, Cambodians are simply switching out multiple SIMs to get the best deals.

Last year, Vimplecom Ltd reported significantly different numbers for the second quarter to its shareholders,

French Mobitel talks 'less advanced'

2011-01-25T08:23:00.000-08:00

FRANCE Telecom SA’s talks on acquisitions in Iraq and Cambodia are progressing, and the company may enter Algeria as it expands further into emerging markets, Chief Executive Officer Stephane Richard said.

Talks on a possible deal for a stake in Cambodia’s Mobitel are “less advanced” than those on buying part of Iraq’s Korek Telecom, Richard told reporters in Paris yesterday.

The CEO, who took over last March, is looking to orient France Telecom toward fast-growing countries in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia to offset stagnant revenue at home. He has pledged to spend as much as 7 billion euros (US$9.2 billion) on emerging-market deals by 2015 as part of a plan to double revenue from those countries.

France’s largest phone company is monitoring developments in Algeria, where it could seek a presence either through existing operator Djezzy or other means, Richard said.

France Telecom shares yesterday rose 0.2 percent to 15.98 euros in Paris, valuing the company at about 42.3 billion euros.

In Iraq, France Telecom may take a minority stake in Korek along with “a financial partner” also active in logistics, and with whom the Paris-based company has already cooperated elsewhere, the executive said. He declined to identify the investor.

France Telecom has invested in Kenya with Alcazar Capital Ltd, a Dubai-based private equity firm spun off from Agility Logistics in 2009.

In 2007, Alcazar provided Korek with a $250- million convertible loan. Entering Iraq would expand France Telecom’s influence into the heart of the Middle East, adding to expansion last year into Morocco and Tunisia.

Royal Group Chairman Kith Meng did not discuss the state of Mobitel negotiations when contacted by reporters yesterday.

Mobile merger is approved

2011-01-25T08:22:00.001-08:00

The long-awaited consolidation of Cambodia’s overcrowded mobile phone sector began yesterday, as Smart Mobile and Star-Cell officially merged into one company.

Following the announcement of the prospective deal last month, the firms yesterday claimed to have obtained the “necessary approvals” for the merger.

The newly formed provider will operate under the roof of the Smart Mobile brand and claims to be the third largest of the Kingdom’s eight mobile operators, with some 850,000 subscribers – though some in the industry have previously expressed skepticism at the number.

“There is a competitive advantage for those who are leading the market, including Smart Mobile,” said Smart’s chief executive officer Thomas Hundt at a Phnom Penh conference on the merger yesterday.

“Those who cannot leverage on the economy of scale, they will have more difficulty to be successful, to be profitable.”

The number of operators is likely to shrink further to reflect the reality of the Cambodian market, he said, to perhaps four or five providers.

“There are not so many countries in the world comparable to Cambodia, which have such a high number of operators relative to the number of people,” said Hundt.

Existing Star-Cell outlets and dealers will be rebranded to Smart Mobile by March this year.

The combined provider will be 75-percent owned by Smart’s owners, Cyprus-based Timeturns Holdings, and 25 percent by Star-Cells’s parent company, TeliaSonera AB.

The two owners have also co-operated in other markets.

On December 6, the same day that TeliaSonera first announced the merger, TeliaSonera increased its ownership in Nepal service provider NCell to 60.4 percent, from 40.8 percent. Smart Mobile’s owners Timeturns also have a stake in NCell, according to their website.

Thomas Hundt said cooperation by the owners in other markets was a positive factor influencing the Kingdom merger – but not its main impetus.

“At the end of the day, it was a pure [business] decision based on the facts and based on the value for the investors here in Cambodia,” he said.

Hundt said that no cash payment had been made from one side to the other in respect to the merger.

The deal came after rival Cambodian providers had also expressed interest in acquiring Star-Cell. qb chief executive officer Alan Sinfield has said that his firm made a cash bid for Star-Cell. Smart plans to expand its coverage to the Kingdom’s 24 provinces by the first half of 2011, as well as make 3G service available in the larger cities.

Mobile lottery for Cambodia

2011-01-25T08:21:00.001-08:00

Philweb Cambodia Ltd aims to have a lottery available through mobiles and kiosks by the end of the year, according to a filing by its parent company on the Philippines Stock Exchange.

The Cambodian lottery – which received a licence in August – was expected to prove profitable, it said.

“It is expected that the operation will contribute significant amount of revenue and bottom line to the Company’s already growing business,” the statement said.

Counting SIMs: MPTC calls for statistic cooperation

2011-01-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

SOME of the Kingdom’s mobile phone service providers are reluctant to release information to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, which officials say is making it difficult to provide oversight for the sector.

The ministry compiles a monthly list of active subscribers in Cambodia, but officials said some companies are routinely late in providing the information they require.

“Not only the Ministry, but the Council of Ministers need reports,” said Sieng Sithy, deputy director of the Directorate of Telecommunications Policies Regulation. “Without cooperation from other people it’s very difficult.” MPTC’s November report showed Cambodia has 8.58 million mobile subscribers, but many in the industry say actual numbers could be as small as half that.

Hello’s CEO Simon Perkins said he was not aware specifically of the complaint about late numbers, but said he did have a concern over the accuracy of the reported figures. “I don’t know which operators are slow to report, or why. My guess would be maybe they don’t have anything good to report?” he wrote.

Sieng Sithy some people switch between SIM cards, creating large subscriber totals.

Mobitel offers stake in firm

2011-01-25T08:17:00.000-08:00

Mobitel entered exclusive negotiations with France Telecom this week over the sale of a stake in the Cambodian mobile provider, according to industry sources.

“The company is not for sale, but a minority stake is available,” said an industry insider, requesting anonymity.

France Telecom – Europe’s third largest telecoms company – was negotiating for 40 percent of the provider, the source added.

Several foreign firms had been in discussions over a majority stake in Mobitel over the past year, until Cambodian owners The Royal Group improved its financial position by refinancing through the Bank of China in early November, he said.

In November, conglomerate The Royal Group inked a US$591-million deal to refinance Mobitel’s existing debts and expand its services with the Bank of China acting as main lender.

Prime Minister Hun Sen witnessed the deal in Phnom Penh, along with Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress.

Another person associated with France Telecom’s position confirmed this week’s negotiations. Speaking on a condition of anonymity, he said: “We very much hope to succeed,” but did not elaborate further.

Mobitel Chief Executive Officer David Spriggs declined to comment yesterday. The Royal Group and France Telecom
officials did not return request for comment.

France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard said last month that the firm may direct some of its €7 billion ($9.45 billion) war chest for emerging market expansion to Southeast Asia as its historic turf in Africa became more crowded.

He singled out possibilities in Southeast Asia, particularly the former French colonies of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports claimed yesterday that Indonesia’s largest mobile phone company Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) was in talks with Mobitel over a potential purchase of a majority stake in the firm.

“I hope that the process of acquisition will be completed by the first quarter next year,” Telkom Chief Commissioner Tanri Abeng said, according to the report.

However, several Cambodian industry insiders said they were not aware of negotiations when contacted by The Post yesterday.

Statistics from Cambodia’s Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications obtained from an industry source show Mobitel has dropped to be the second largest mobile provider by subscriber numbers.

The largest was Metfone – owned by Viettel, a subsidiary of the Vietnamese military – claiming 2.84 million subscribers in November, or 33 percent of the total.
Mobitel claimed 2.73 million subscribers in the month, representing 32 percent of the overall total.

Hello, owned by Malaysia-based Axiata, came in third with 870,000 subscribers, or 10 percent share.

Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun could not be contacted yesterday, while secretary of state La Narath claimed he was “too busy” to respond

Mobile market shake-up move

2011-01-25T08:15:00.000-08:00

Smart Mobile and Star-Cell are merging under the Smart brand to form what could be the Kingdom’s third-largest mobile- phone provider. The deal, which is pending approval from Cambodian authorities, would see Star-Cell’s parent TeliaSonera granted 25-percent ownership of the combined firm.

Both companies said yesterday the merger would see Smart Mobile swell to 850,000 subscribers.

That would leave it third in the market, behind Mobitel and Metfone, in terms of active SIM cards, according to Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications statistics released in June.

Smart Mobile Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hundt declined to comment on the payment terms of the merger yesterday, but described the agreement as “pioneering” for the mobile market.

The sector – which now has eight players – is widely regarded one of the most competitive in the world and in need of consolidation.

Hundt said the advantages of the merger went beyond an increased subscriber base and broader network coverage.

The merged entity would also benefit from “combined distribution network, new services – such as the introduction of 3G during 2011 – and combined know-how”.

Star-Cell staff would be added to Smart Mobile’s payroll, Hundt said, while signal towers considered “redundant” by infrastructure sharing would be relocated.

Tero Kivisaari, TeliaSonera president for Eurasian business, described the merger as “inevitable”, pointing to the “fierce competition” and “high churn” of the Cambodian mobile market.

“We are therefore pleased to drive this development and thereby create a stronger mobile operator in Cambodia,” he said in a release to the Stockholm stock exchange yesterday.

Simon Perkins, CEO of mobile operator Hello, echoed Kivisaari’s comments. “It’s a totally obvious move for smaller players in the sector,” he said.

However, he questioned the legitimacy of the claim the pair would form an 850,000-strong subscriber base.

“That’s rubbish,” he said. “The figures are absolutely incorrect.”

Providers have previously pointed to the difficulty in evaluating subscriber numbers, as the way they are measured varies from firm to firm.

Q3 Beeline revenues disappoint

2011-01-25T08:13:00.000-08:00

THIRD quarter results for mobile operator Beeline fell “below expectations”, according to its parent company Vimpelcom, after the provider saw revenues slide about 10 percent during a three-month period.

Operating revenue, income and average revenue per user, all declined from the second to the third quarter this year, according to statistics released late last week by Amsterdam-based Vimpelcom – which operates in both Vietnam and Cambodia.

In South-East Asia, Vimpelcom saw declines across the board. Vietnamese operations were not included in its financial results, according to a statement accompanying the data.

Operating revenue fell around 10 percent quarter on quarter, from US$5.5 million to $5 million. Operating income, before depreciation and amortization, fell around 8.6 percent from a loss of $8.1 million in the second quarter, to a loss of $8.8 million in the third quarter.

ARPU shrunk for the third successive quarter, reaching $3.2 per user, from $3.4 in quarter two and $3.5 in quarter one.

Subscriber numbers slipped to 505,000 from 525,000.

The statistics, however, did show a stark improvement when compared to Vimpelcom’s regional operations a year earlier – soon after its May launch of Beeline Cambodia.

In the third quarter of 2009, its South East Asian operating revenue was just $2.4 million while operating loss, before depreciation and amortization, was $13.2 million.

Despite the results, Vimpelcom remained positive about Beeline’s future in the market it described as having an “adverse regulatory context”.

“Although the quarterly results were slightly below our expectations, we are confident that our business in Cambodia will be on track by the end of the year,” a report accompanying the statistics stated.

A Beeline spokeswomen declined to comment yesterday. Emailed requests to company officials went unanswered.

Globally, Vimpelcom’s operating revenues grew 6.9 percent quarter on quarter to $2.824 billion. Its net income rose 48.2 percent in quarter three, to $495.9 million. The group is currently seeking a $6.5 billion merger with Orascom Telecom Holding and Weather Investments.

The companies have yet to sign a final agreement to create the world’s fifth largest mobile-phone company, as Orascom tries to resolve a dispute with the
Algerian government over its local unit, Djezzy.

Hello’s goodwill cut by $15m

2011-01-25T08:11:00.000-08:00

The owner of Cambodian mobile provider Hello has cut the value of “goodwill” towards its operations by 49 million ringgit (US$15.7 million) in its third quarter results.

“During the financial period to date, the company recorded an impairment on goodwill of Hello Axiata Company Limited of RM49 million,” a report from Malaysia-based Axiata Group stated.

Goodwill, generally defined as the value of a firm beyond its tangible assets, could include factors such as the value of a brand name or the company’s reputation.

Axiata is the latest telco to consider the value of its Cambodian assets. Last month, TeliaSonera said it had “no goodwill” towards its Star-Cell brand and wrote down the worth of its operations by more than $100 million.

Officials from Hello declined to comment directly on its goodwill yesterday, but said that its third quarter results illustrated a recent promotional drive.

The firm claimed 800,000 subscribers at the end of the third quarter, a 63 percent increase on the end of the second quarter, according to Axiata.

However, revenues dropped 14 percent during the same period - partly due to costs of the firm’s strategy, officials said.

“They are related. We’ve been conducting more aggressive promotion,” said Hello’s chief executive officer Simon Perkins yesterday.

In a presentation accompanying the results, Axiata stated: “[Hello’s] performance continued to be affected by a highly competitive environment.”

However, the results have some positives for the firm in Cambodia’s crowded market.

The 800,000 subscribers, recorded in the recent quarter, push it ahead of Mfone, which claimed 569,472 subscribers at the end of the third quarter in its most recent report.

In June, Mfone climbed ahead of Hello to become the third largest telecoms company in Cambodia, according to Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications statistics.

One industry insider, who requested anonymity, said there would likely be three mobile providers left standing in the Kingdom within five years, given the competitive nature of the market.

The companies would be “Mobitel, Viettel and one other. It is that last spot where the attention will be focused,” the insider said.

Recently, Hello launched a promotional campaign worth US$1 million at the end of the third quarter, in a bid to target “quality” subscribers, according to chief marketing officer Eric Chong.

Axiata Group Bhd saw its global third quarter profits increase by 27 percent from a year earlier.

The group – which has been the second strongest performer on the benchmark Malaysian index this year – saw net income rise to 639.1 million ringgit ($204 million), in the three months ended September 30, from 503.7 million ringgit a year ago.

Its Cambodia operations make up around one percent of its overall business, according to its results.

Licensed firm spreads wings

2011-01-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

WING mobile money transfer service plans to expand its reach to handle payrolls and loan payments, after being granted the official go-ahead to offer United States dollar accounts by the National Bank of Cambodia.

The firm – owned by ANZ Bank – was granted the first licence to be awarded by the central bank to act as a third party payments processor, at Phnom Penh’s Raffles Hotel Le Royal yesterday.

WING allows its users to conduct money transfers, as well as services such as paying electricity bills and topping up mobile credit, via mobile phones.

It launched in January 2009 for riel-transactions only and presently partners with six Cambodian mobile providers.

It claims nearly 200,000 users, a number which it says it is committed to growing.

With the licence, “a whole range of operations open up to the wider business community”, WING Managing Director David Kleiman said on the ceremony sidelines yesterday.

According to Kleiman, the use of accounts denominated in dollars or riel will help the firm to launch services such as micro-finance payments and meeting of payrolls for businesses such as hotels and garment factories – where transactions are generally conducted in dollars.

Traditionally, many Cambodian firms met payrolls through handing out cash or through bank accounts, but the process often contains risks and costs.

Armed guards were often hired to guard the cash at the firms’ expense, or companies had to shoulder the expense of opening bank accounts for all of their employees, he said.

WING would also like to handle in-bound international remittances as more and more Cambodians were travelling abroad to seek higher-paid work, often sending money back to friends and relatives in the Kingdom, Kleiman said.

Emigrants required a method to transfer money back to their family.

“They need that service, and the mobile phone is the easiest, most ubiquitous, least intimidating way for people to do that,” he said, but added that the focus is on growing their domestic business at the moment.

The World Bank estimated that remittances received in Cambodia would total US$364 million in 2010, from $338 million last year, in its Migration and Remittances Factbook 2011.

Although WING has been issued the first permit, following an August prakas setting out licensing regulations, several other firms are following in its footsteps.

Mobitel’s Cellcard Cash scheme was launched in September, though officials have said it was launched without applying for a licence from the NBC.

Malaysian firm MobilityOne has also announced an intention to offer mobile banking in Cambodia.

Speaking at yesterday’s ceremony, NBC Director General Tal Nay Im welcomed the firm’s potential to spread banking services across Cambodia.

“The presence of WING has been a key contribution to facilitate payment transactions in the economy, especially money transfer services for low income people who don’t have bank accounts,” she said.

Smart Mobile in Star-Cell merger talks, qb claims

2011-01-25T08:08:00.000-08:00

SMART Mobile is in talks to merge with rival provider Star-Cell, according to the head of rival company qb.

“We understand Smart is in discussions over a proposed merger [with Star-Cell],” said Alan Sinfield, qb’s chief executive officer, yesterday.

Mobile operator qb had also eyed Star-Cell, he said, but had proposed a 100-percent purchase rather than a merger.

“If we are unsuccessful, or even if we are successful, we will pursue other acquisitions or mergers,” he said.

Star-Cell had been widely viewed as being on the market in recent months. Its Sweden-based owner TeliaSonera AB announced it had “written down” its value by more than US$100 million late last month, claiming “no goodwill” in a market it said was characterised by fierce competition and high churn rates.

Star-Cell was the seventh largest of the Kingdom’s nine mobile operators, with 503,000 active subscribers at the end of September, TeliaSonera said in its third quarter results.

According to research by The Post, the companies behind Smart and Star-Cell – Cyprus-based Timeturns Holdings and TeliaSonera respectively – already cooperate in other markets.

Star-Cell first launched in Cambodia in October 2007, according to the industry body GSMA. It was 100 percent acquired by TeliaSonera in September 2008.

That deal also saw TeliaSonera acquire 80 percent of Spice Nepal. Timeturns is the founder and part owner of Spice Nepal, according to the firm.

It claims to have begun operating Spice Nepal in 2005 as the first privately owned mobile provider in the country, on its website.

Smart Mobile Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hundt declined to comment on the claim yesterday.

Officials from Star-Cell had told The Post to contact TeliaSonera representatives, who claimed to be “unable to comment”.

Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Director General Mao Chakrya was unavailable and other ministry officials declined to discuss the alleged merger.

Earlier this year, Alan Sinfield targeted extending qb’s coverage to 100 percent of Cambodia’s population by the end of 2010.

“It’s going to be hard to achieve but certainly that’s our main goal,” he said, though he declined to disclose the cost of the expansion or the number of towers targeted.

Mobitel gets NBC reprieve

2011-01-25T08:06:00.000-08:00

MOBITEL’S Cellcard Cash programme has been given until February to fully comply with National Bank of Cambodia regulations, according to Central Bank Director General Tal Nay Im.

The money transfer service – which is run by Cambodia’s largest mobile phone provider– has until early next year to apply for a licence and formally partner with a bank, she said.

“We have given them some time,” she said yesterday.

Cellcard Cash was launched in September without oversight from the National Bank of Cambodia.

The bank issued a prakas or edict on August 17 requiring third-party processors to comply with its rules.

Several company officials could not be reached for comment yesterday, but Operations Manager Kay Lot has previously told The Post that Mobitel did not consider the programme banking.

The programme had been launched with a grant from the GSM Association’s US$5 million Mobile Money for the Unbanked program, which is largely funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Last month, the MMUprogram confirmed that it had suspend all grants payments to Mobitel, but added that Mobitel was working with the NBC to develop the appropriate regulatory framework and secure a formal licence in a statement.

“To this end, the two parties have agreed to suspend the payment of further grant monies until the GSMA MMU Fund Panel is satisfied that [Mobitel] has secured all necessary regulatory approvals,” it said in a statement.

“GSMA encourages dialogue between mobile money providers and regulators, however regulation is a matter for the government in each country in which such services are developed,” the statement said.

Mobitel gains time, but who will buy company?

2011-01-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

MOBITEL’S announcement of a US$591 million deal with Bank of China to refinance last year’s $421 million agreement buys Mobitel time, but the country’s leading network has still not found an international telecoms partner.

The refinancing package means Mobitel has breathing space – as the terms of the new deal are longer term – but that also means the firm will likely be saddled with interest payments for more time.

The network had been expected by many within the sector to have found a global telecoms firm to buy a stake. That would have permitted repayment of the original loan, meaning a replacement lending package would not have been required.

Most people will no doubt come to the conclusion that has overshadowed the Cambodian mobile phone sector for some time now: Selling off mobile phone assets in part or in full has become tricky given the high level of competition and low current returns.

That certainly seems to be the case, but then setting up a deal to sell part of Mobitel is a large and complex issue that would naturally be expected to take time. The question for any investor though remains: How much is Mobitel worth and what are the network’s longer-term prospects?

When The Royal Group took on Millicom’s majority stake last year, the operation was valued at $605 million in terms of assets, but then 2010 has hardly been a good year for anyone in the sector as competition has stifled revenues.

Companies looking at Mobitel’s longer-term prospects though could only come to the conclusion the firm is still in pole position to outlast the current sector-wide malaise.

In a market in which consolidation is likely, Mobitel will continue to be the market leader and by committing to infrastructure expansion following two deals with Huawei worth a combined $500 million, the network is positioning itself in the right way.

Expansion into more rural areas allows Mobitel to battle its main competitor Metfone, whose main advantage is its wide coverage following a rapid infrastructure rollout. In the past 18 months Mobitel has been much better at competing in urban areas. Prospective buyers including France Telecom, according to reports, will therefore see long-term value in a Mobitel stake.

Committing to the long haul in the mobile sector, while uncertainties, including the lack of a long-awaited telecoms law, remain, is a big commitment for a foreign company that would almost certainly have no experience of the Kingdom. So, who will get into bed with The Royal Group by taking on Mobitel?

China takes on $591m Mobitel debt

2011-01-25T08:03:00.000-08:00

The owner of mobile phone provider Mobitel yesterday signed what is believed to be Cambodia’s biggest refinancing deal.

The Royal Group inked a US$591 million agreement to refinance Mobitel’s debts and expand its services, with the Bank of China acting as its main lender.

Prime Minister Hun Sen witnessed the deal, along with Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China.

The deal will enable The Royal Group to refinance a $421 million loan used to buy out a majority stake in Mobitel from Luxembourg-based Millicom last year.

It follows months of speculation in the telecommunications sector over a possible sale of CamGSM, the 100 percent operator of Mobitel.

Mark Hanna, chief financial officer for The Royal Group, said yesterday the new loan deal was “much longer term” than the previous arrangement with ANZ, Standard Bank and Leopard Capital, among others.

Scott Lewis, managing partner at Leopard Capital – which owned $5 million of CamGSM’s debt – said the firm was being repaid on a timeline it expected.

“I am surprised at the announcement and the way it was repaid, but it was in line with our expectation that we would be repaid within a year or a year and a
half,” he said.

Securing refinancing some six months before the loan was due meant international banks would gain confidence in lending large amounts to firms in the Kingdom, according to Hanna, who did not detail interest rates.

“By us repackaging [the] existing loan ahead of time, this is great [for Cambodia],” he said.

The newly acquired financing would be put towards refinancing debt and funding Mobitel’s costs for capital expansion, he said.

Mobitel Chief Executive Officer David Spriggs said funds would be used to develop new services and expand network coverage in rural areas.

Thursday also saw the provider sign a five-year deal, worth $500 million, with China’s Huawei Technologies for the supply of equipment and services, building on an initial three-year $200 million deal in February.

Hanna said the company was “still reviewing options”, when asked if the refinancing meant Mobitel was no longer for sale.

Late last month, Aline Perrette, deputy commercial counsellor at the French embassy, told The Post that “the negotiations [between France Telecom and Mobitel] are still going on”. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CHEANG SOKHA

Mobile Money Transfer Service in Cambodia in Jeopardy

2011-01-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

An international association of mobile operators has suspended grant payments to fund Cambodia’s largest service provider Mobitel’s money transfer service following regulatory concerns.

In May, the GSM Association (GSMA) announced Mobitel’s parent firm CamGSM had been awarded a grant under its US$5 million Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) program largely backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mobitel launched its Cellcard Cash money transfer service in late September.

The amount of money awarded to the provider has yet to be disclosed.

Officials have since said service began without oversight from the National Bank of Cambodia, as mandated in an August prakas.

Mobitel under greater pressure to clarify Cellcard Cash position

2011-01-25T07:57:00.000-08:00

METFONE’S decision to become the latest mobile operator to sign up to ANZ’s WING money transfer system this week means market leader Mobitel is under even greater pressure to sort out the fiasco surrounding its own mobile-payment system.

The rewards for quick, fully-authorised market entry are obvious. Around 95 percent of Cambodians still do not have a bank account, and the mobile-money model has already proved a lucrative hit in countries all over the developing world, particularly in Africa and Asia…

Samsung S7230E Wave 723

2011-01-25T07:56:00.001-08:00

Recently, Samsung company just revealed the launch of its next handset- Samsung S7230E Wave 723 this month. The wave 723 is based on the famous Bada platform just like expensive model of the series, the S8500 Wave.

The Wave 723 comes with a 3.2″ capacitive TFT touchscreen of WQVGA resolution (240 x 400 pixels. Also on board there is a 5MP autofocus snapper with QVGA video recording and a LED flash, a 3.5mm audio jack, 90MB of storage (expandable through a microSD card slot) and a built-in GPS receiver. The Samsung S7230E Wave 723 will support quad-band 2G and dual-band 3G as well as 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0.

Beeline introduced new mobile top-up service

2011-01-25T07:53:00.000-08:00

Recently, Mobile phone operator, Beeline-Cambodia, introduced a mobile top-up service “Easy Fill”, which allows all Beeline subscribers to be able to top up any amount they would like to have, not required scratch cards to thousands of points of sale.

The new service “Easy Fill” makes its subscribers easier to choose any amount they would like to top up from 50 cents up to $500. And this service is limited to only 11 provinces at present.

Beeline subscribers are able to receive service “Easy Fill” from Beeline sales offices located in 11 provinces: Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Battambang, Kampong Cham, Kandal, Kampot, Prey Veng, Kampong Chhnang, Kompong Thom and Banteay Mean Chey.

After launch in May 2010, the Beeline distribution network in Cambodia was already comprised of 11 sales offices, more than 6,400 scratch card points of sales and more than 100 branded trade countries across 21 provinces.

Therefore, Beeline subscribers have two options to top up their credit either scratch card or a new mobile service “Easy Fill”. By the way, mobile top-up service of “Easy Fill” is more convenient because customers only have to say what amount they want to top up and denominations start as low as 50 cents.

SIM cards as status symbols

2010-11-25T19:42:00.000-08:00

CELL phone numbers are becoming a sign of social status in Cambodia, and a new firm aims to collect on the trend by offering SIM cards for up to thousands of dollars.

KhmerSim.com’s Managing Director Kong Piseth said demand for SIM cards with “lucky” or “VIP” numbers was coming primarily from the Kingdom’s businessmen, who were keen to portray their wealth.

“The rich people, they need something special to show they have money and power,” he said.

What constitutes a “VIP” or “lucky” number depends on the customer. Some prefer numbers that are easy to remember, but it is repeating digits in particular that often demand serious cash.

Its website offered several Star-Cell numbers – such as 098 79 7777 – for US$2,830, and a selection of Mobitel numbers for $1,530, including 017 43 7777.

On the other end of the spectrum, Smart’s 010 82 0003 was on offer from KhmerSim.com for $10.

“So far we have not sold any in the thousands, but we have sold some that cost $200 or $300,” he said late last week.

Although the company is only a few months old, it claims to have already sold “hundreds” of SIM cards.With five employees, it is planning to begin contacting high-powered businessmen directly to expand sales.

KhmerSim.com acts as a middleman for “dealers” who obtain the SIMs, said Kong Piseth – though he declined to reveal the identity of the dealers, calling it a company secret.

Gary Foo, marketing manager at mobile provider Hello, said some SIMs sell for considerable amounts of money.

“The price to pay for special numbers does go sky-high sometimes,” he wrote last week.

Consumers have come to see certain numbers as a means to demonstrate their individual social status, with the more expensive the number conferring the owner’s social standing.

Repeating numbers or easy to remember digits are very popular, he said, but added there was also a cultural component to what constituted special numbers, particularly with Chinese influence.

The number eight represents prosperity in Chinese culture, and often shows up in “lucky” numbers, according to Gary Foo.

Some numbers also have meanings attached to them in Chinese languages, such as 118, which combines to mean “everyday prosperity” in Cantonese.

Piseth Kong said there were another two or three Cambodian websites in the same business as KhmerSim.com, but competition was likely to grow further over time.

He claimed Metfone was the most popular SIM requested from the company, with Mobitel coming in second and Beeline rounding out at a close third.

The most expensive number on rival site KhmerSimCard.com displayed yesterday was 015 888 848, which was on offer for $980. source: phnompenhpost

Hello’s goodwill cut by $15m

2010-11-25T19:38:00.000-08:00

The owner of Cambodian mobile provider Hello has cut the value of “goodwill” towards its operations by 49 million ringgit (US$15.7 million) in its third quarter results.

“During the financial period to date, the company recorded an impairment on goodwill of Hello Axiata Company Limited of RM49 million,” a report from Malaysia-based Axiata Group stated.

Goodwill, generally defined as the value of a firm beyond its tangible assets, could include factors such as the value of a brand name or the company’s reputation.

Axiata is the latest telco to consider the value of its Cambodian assets.

Last month, TeliaSonera said it had “no goodwill” towards its Star-Cell brand and wrote down the worth of its operations by more than $100 million.

Officials from Hello declined to comment directly on its goodwill, but said that its third quarter results illustrated a recent promotional drive.

The firm claimed 800,000 subscribers at the end of the third quarter, a 63 percent increase on the end of the second quarter, according to Axiata.

However, revenues dropped 14 percent during the same period - partly due to costs of the firm’s strategy, officials said.

“They are related. We’ve been conducting more aggressive promotion,” said Hello’s chief executive officer Simon Perkins.

In a presentation accompanying the results, Axiata stated: “[Hello’s] performance continued to be affected by a highly competitive environment.”

However, the results have some positives for the firm in Cambodia’s crowded market.

The 800,000 subscribers, recorded in the recent quarter, push it ahead of Mfone, which claimed 569,472 subscribers at the end of the third quarter in its most recent report.

Recently, Hello launched a promotional campaign worth US$1 million at the end of the third quarter, in a bid to target “quality” subscribers, according to chief marketing officer Eric Chong.

Axiata Group Bhd saw its global third quarter profits increase by 27 percent from a year earlier.

The group – which has been the second strongest performer on the benchmark Malaysian index this year – saw net income rise to 639.1 million ringgit ($204 million) in the three months ended on September 30, from 503.7 million ringgit a year ago. source: phnompenhpost

LG mobile ups market share

2010-08-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

South Korean electronics conglomerate LG saw its share of the Cambodian mobile-phone market moe than double over the first six months of 2010, despite concerns that some stores may be illegally cashing in on its corporate brand.

LG planned to open its first Cambodian service centre by the end of August, as its mobile-phone market share increased from 4 percent in January to 10 percent in July, LG Electronics Thailand managing director Lee Hyun-woo said last week.

As overseer of LG’s Cambodian operations, he said the firm looked to increasingly target the needs of Cambodia’s electronics consumers.
He said the company distributed its mobile handsets through Cambodian firm iOne.

“LG is not ready to take on Cambodia alone,” he said.

Market research from GfK showed the Kingdom’s vendors sold US$5 million worth of mobile phones a month, LG spokeswoman Natthaphorm Chaiwong said at a product launch held at Naga-World on Thursday.

Sales of high-end phones in Cambodia were increasing at a rapid rate, with market research showing a 240 percent increase in touch phones, a 270 percent increase in dual SIM handsets, and an overall 50 percent increase in smart phones over the first six months of the year.

LG plans to release three new high-end models, the LG Optimus, the LG Mini and the GX500, through iOne to the Kingdom’s consumers this week.

iOne was the lone Cambodian firm licensed to sell LG mobiles with official warranties in the Kingdom, although LG handsets were available from several unofficial distributors, iOne Marketing Manager Houv Boram said

LG also faces a problem common to many firms doing business in the Kingdom – domestic companies are using its trademark without
permission.

One shop in particular made liberal use of the LG logo to advertise its shop, despite not having LG’s permission, according to its supply chain general manager Moon Sung-ho.

He likened using LG’s trademark without permission to “a kind of illegal action”, but said that the company intended to resolve the problem “peacefully”.

“We gave that shop just a warning letter,” he said on Friday. “We didn’t ask the Cambodian government to shut [it] down.”

Though LG Thailand had not given permission to the Cambodian shop to use its trademark, LG’s Seoul-based officials did not return a request for comment on whether the Phnom Penh store in question had been granted permission from a separate LG wing to operate with the trademark.

Meanwhile, expanding domestic mobile-phone sales have recently attracted increased presence from international manufacturers of handsets.

Finnish manufacturer Nokia launched its first Cambodian office last month in a bid to “bring it closer” to people here, its Indochina general manager William Hamilton-Whyte said. source; the phnom penh post

Mobile minnow looks ahead

2010-07-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

MOBILE operator qb has begun its planned expansion to cover Cambodia’s entire population by the end of the year, according to CEO Alan Sinfield.

Service provided by qb, one of Cambodia’s smaller operators by subscribers, was now limited to Phnom Penh and six or seven other metropolitan areas, he told the Post.

“It’s going to be hard to achieve [100 percent population coverage], but certainly that’s our main goal,” he said, though he declined to disclose the cost of the expansion or the number of towers to be added.

He did say it would involve a “substantial build”.

Although many experts say the Kingdom’s mobile sector is overcrowded, with nine active providers, Sinfield said the ongoing plans were inspired by enthusiasm from parent firm Cambodian Advance Communications.

“Our investors view Cambodia as a developing country very positively, seeing great potential, and are keen to be a part of this,” he said. He declined to reveal investors’ identities.

Sinfield said that after he took the helm in March the firm began a two- or three-month period of assessment of the Cambodian market.

“We know our niche, and we are focusing on it. Basically, we’re looking to deliver quality of network, and availability, to customers.”<--!More-->

Tariffs charged by qb would be competitive, but not the cheapest in Cambodia, as the firm intends to focus on value, he said.

It presently operates a 3.5G Ericsson network, which allows users to quickly surf the internet or share videos. The firm also provides high-speed internet through computers via USB modem, allowing access to its 3rd Generation user network.

However, Sinfield acknowledged that the firm was exploring the use of other technologies besides 3G to meet its target of 100 percent coverage of the Kingdom’s population.

“The issue is 3G is expensive technology, so for us to cover the same geographical space it’s almost two times as expensive with 3G [as with 2G].”

3G coverage would remain available primarily in urban areas and major roadways, with less-expensive technology extended to rural areas, Sinfield said.

The firm was also looking to innovate with green technology to power its new towers, he said.

It would prioritise electricity from the national grid and generators, but would also make use of solar panels, he said.

Sinfield said his company first provided coverage in 2008, and was one of Cambodia’s smaller providers by active subscriber numbers, but he disputed Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications figures depicting it as the smallest GSM provider.

“It depends on how you count active subscribers. The standard is commonly someone who has made calls in the last 90 days,” he said.

Value-added services also play a large part in qb’s strategy, and Sinfield highlighted user-generated content as an area of interest.

“Value-added service penetration is very low in Cambodia. However, we see this differentiation by qb as an area we can provide opportunities,” he said.

“From a marketing standpoint we do lots of studies, including of international trends. We also do a lot of mystery shopping. Also, plenty of studies of international trends.” source: the phnom penh post

Hello offers new blackberry plan

2010-06-30T02:39:00.001-07:00

HELLO announced repackaged Blackberry plans at an event Thursday, offering the popular communication devices at US$25 a month postpaid. It has also begun offering new 3G broadband packages, beginning at $1 a day. source: the phnom penh post

Mfone promos tap into lifestyle

2010-06-30T02:37:00.000-07:00

MFONE launched two new promotions targeting specific societal groups Monday, in the latest illustration of its new sector-specific marketing strategy. The Mfone We scheme is aimed at teenagers who engage in “night time chit chat calls”, offering 4.5-cent calls within its network and 5.95-cent cross-network calls from 8pm to 6am. Its new Mfone Sabai promotion targets daytime callers. Source: the phnom penh post

A new generation of mobile

2010-06-30T02:35:00.000-07:00

CAMBODIA’S telecos are set to expand on the use of third-generation (3G) phone technology, spreading coverage from cities to rural areas, according to the in-country managing director of mobile infrastructure firm Alcatel-Lucent.

Jiangho Li told the Post Wednesday that domestic firms are increasingly demanding 3G infrastructure, such as mobile-phone transmitters, in order to compete in the Kingdom’s crowded telecoms market.

“It’s a challenging market. Operators need to adapt,” said the Alcatel-Lucent director. He added that his company supplies over 70 percent of market-leader Mobitel’s infrastructure.

The 3G technology allows larger data bandwidth on mobiles, increasing the ability of users to surf the internet or share videos or pictures.

At least five telecoms players, including Hello, Mobitel and Viettel, provide 3G to varying degrees. But coverage is presently clustered around Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and Sihanoukville.

Alcatel-Lucent’s Jiangho Li said he thinks 3G will eventually be used to spread internet access to rural areas in the absence of land lines.

“Cambodia is not like other countries. There’s not very much fixed-line penetration, so that’s why everyone will use 3G,” he said. “There’s 40,000 to 50,000 fixed lines compared to around 5 million mobile users in Cambodia.”

Leading telcos are clearly embracing what are known as “value-added” services, such as internet provision via phone.

At an event held at Phnom Penh’s Raffles Hotel Le Royal on Thursday, operator Hello launched packages promoting data technology.
However, Marketing Manager Gary Foo said Monday it was important to remain focused on the business of attracting customers.

“While technology and innovation plays a very important role, we believe what’s more important is how we use it to make life more convenient for our customers and ensuring [technology] is relevant to their needs,” he said in an email.

Smart Mobile added that although it is investigating 3G’s potential, there are other forms of technology able to provide a similar level of data access.

“Data internet is not widely used yet on the Cambodian market. As this picks up, we have alternatives,” said Smart Mobile CEO Thomas Hundt. He highlighted similar technologies such as WiMax internet access.

But the cost for 3G equipment is rapidly dropping, and in many countries increased demand is leading providers to no longer install 2G equipment at all, according to Alcatel-Lucents’s Jinghou Li.

“Customers are asking for 3G,” he said.

In 2006, Prime Minister Hun Sen briefly banned 3G, alluding to the potential for using the technology for sending pornographic video content.
“I say wait another 10 years until we strengthen social morality,” he said in a radio address at the time.

Metfone, the Kingdom’s second largest provider by subscriber numbers, had previously planned to install 1,500 3G stations during the first quarter of the year.

Owned by Vietnam-based Viettel, Metfone managing director Nguyen Duy Tho previously announced plans to extend 3G coverage to every district in the Kingdom.

Metfone did not return request for comment on Monday. source: the phnom penh post

Mfone eschews pricing war

2010-06-15T03:30:00.000-07:00

MOBILE provider Mfone has changed its strategy to target specific sectors of Cambodia’s population this quarter, rather than entering a telecommunications price war, its CEO said Monday.

Adisai Soonthornratanarak told the Post that the decision to move away from competing solely on price was made in the second quarter of 2010, following the implementation of a government prakas, or edict, which set minimum levels for tariff plans last year.

Admitting that the company “struggled” in the wake of government regulations, he said the firm has now rethought its approach to competing in the Kingdom’s crowded mobile sector.

“The price war is going nowhere. Even now, no one is admitting they lose money, but most of us do. If we just jump into the price war, we don’t know where it will end,” he said.

“Differentiating yourself is the key to success. We believe people have different lifestyles, different roles in life,” he added.

Mfone is now tailoring SIM packages to different segments of society. On Saturday, the company announced the soft launch of a new SIM card.

The Serenade Mekong SIM offers a flat rate of US$0.18 a minute for travellers roaming through Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand through agreements with other companies owned by parent firm Thaicom.

Marketed towards businessmen, it is slated to become available later this month. Mfone hopes to attract 50,000 customers to the premium SIM by the end of the year.Mfone has previously released a SIM focused on Cambodia’s 100,000-strong ethnic Chinese community and seperate SIMs targeted at teens and rural people.

“If we do this well, we can reach target of over a million subscribers by the end of the year,” the CEO said.

Mfone’s Cambodian subscriber base fell 28 percent for the first quarter of this year, compared to 2009, according to May statistics issued by majority owner Thaicom. Mfone lost US$1.01 million operating in the Kingdom during the first three months this year, compared to a $3.14 million profit for the same period in 2009, according to Thaicom.

Government figures released in May estimated that Mfone is Cambodia’s fourth-largest mobile provider by subscriber base. Source: the phnom penh post

Beeline still facing Mobitel lawsuit

2010-05-21T17:44:00.001-07:00

NEW evidence has emerged that mobile-phone operator Beeline is subject to an ongoing US$2.5 million lawsuit filed by market leader Mobitel, despite assurances made by company representatives this week that the high-profile dispute reached a “satisfactory situation” earlier in the year.

On Monday, Gael Campan, Beeline’s general director, said relations between the providers were “back to normal” after Mobitel filed a lawsuit against Beeline late last year, accusing it of using Mobitel mobile-phone prefixes without permission.

On Wednesday, however, the Post received a letter stating that Beeline is still the subject of a $2.5 million suit currently before Phnom Penh Municipal Court.

“The lawsuit between Mobitel and Beeline has not yet been solved, and we filed [another] lawsuit to the court on February 24, 2010,” stated the correspondence, sent by lawyers acting for Kith Meng, chairman of Royal Group, which owns Mobitel. Royal Group did not answer calls for comment on the issue this week.

An attached document, provided by lawyers Suong Chantharn and Cheng Peng Hab and filed with the court, accuses Beeline of “badly affecting the reputation of CamGSM” and acting in a “dishonest way” by allegedly using Mobitel’s 012, 017, 092, 089, and 077 prefixes.

“Beeline itself knows that this is a kind of dishonest competition against CamGSM, but Beeline still continues to intentionally violate [it] in order to cause damage to CamGSM,” states the filing.

The filing requests that Phnom Penh Municipal Court award $1.5 million in damages and $1 million in compensation to Mobitel, also known as CamGSM.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court deputy prosecutor Sok Roeun said Thursday that the lawsuit originated in August and was then passed to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) – “the competent body for launching further investigations”.

MPTC was instructed to act as arbitrator between the parties, he added. “If reconciliation [was achieved] it would be finished, but if the reconciliation [was not achieved], the municipal court would proceed with the case,” he said.

Since November, several attempts by the MPTC at reconciling the two parties failed to produce results, lawyer Cheng Peng Hab said

Wednesday. The lawyer added that “the dispute between Mobitel and Beeline is still ongoing at Phnom Penh Municipal Court”, and confirmed that the newer lawsuit was filed in February.

Sok Roeun declined to comment on whether Beeline had filed papers with the court.

Emails sent to Beeline officials in Cambodia, including Gael Campan, went unanswered on Wednesday and Thursday.

Benoit Janin, Beeline’s commercial director, said by phone Thursday morning that he would look at the correspondence sent by the Post, but did not reply to further calls or emails.

Natalya Tashkeeva, public relations manager of international business development at Beeline’s Moscow-based parent company VimpelCom, wrote in an email late Thursday that 100 percent of calls on and off Beeline’s networks were reaching their intended recipients.

“We can only confirm what we said on Monday conference: ‘All things are back to normal’,” she said.

According to a transcript of the Post’s conversation with Campan, when asked directly if the “lawsuit is a thing of the past”, he said: “Yes, as I said, for a long time.”

Mobitel chairman Kith Meng declined to comment, pointing reporters to his lawyers’ letter. Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun also declined to comment Thursday. MPTC Director General Mao Chakrya did not answer his phone.

Source: the Phnom Penh Post

Beeline ends its Mobitel spat

2010-05-19T06:13:00.000-07:00

MOBILE operator Beeline has ended its legal conflict with market leader Mobitel over allegations of “dishonest competition”, its general director, Gael Campan, said at an event marking the company’s one year anniversary in Cambodia.

“Frankly speaking all things are back to normal,” he said at Phnom Penh’s Raffles Hotel on Monday, referring to allegations of price-dumping, “illegally” using Mobitel prefixes, and blocked interconnectivity between the two carriers.

The issues sparked Mobitel to file legal action last August against Beeline for using the market leader’s prefixes without permission, deputy prosecutor Sok Roeun said last year, and cited accusations of unfair competition.

Though neglecting to go into detail about the conclusion of the law suit, Campan said that relations between mobile providers had improved since December 2009 and returned to normal by January or February.

“Now it’s back to a satisfactory situation,” he said.

Owned by Moscow-based VimpelCom, Beeline claimed at the Monday event to have the fourth-largest market share among Cambodia’s nine providers, achieving over 500,000 subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2010.

According to government statistics released by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications last week, which counted the active SIM cards in the market, Beeline had the sixth-largest market share nationally.

Gael Campan declined to estimate its percentage share of the total market, citing concerns over competition.

“In the battlefield you don’t want the other guy to know where you are,” he said.

Instead he cited a public perception survey that claimed Beeline stood third for overall usage in Cambodia and second in Phnom Penh itself.

“Percentages aren’t important. What is important are the trends. [Our results] are a strong achievement as we arrived at number nine in this market one year ago,” he said.

The most recent mobile provider to set up in the Kingdom, Beeline operated in full compliance with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications’ prakas on minimum tariffs, Campan said, though he voiced his displeasure with the edict.

“The way I look at it, it is not a fully satisfactory situation,” he said, and added that the tariff pushes mobile-phone service out of reach for many of the Kingdom’s poor.

“Some just cannot afford it. Some people are limited in purchasing power.”

Almost 80 percent of the Kingdom’s population in 21 of 24 provinces received coverage from Beeline, which was potentially the number one mobile-internet provider in the country, according to Campan’s presentation at the event.

“The success we are sharing today is largely the result of the talent of Cambodian people,” he said.

He added that Beeline concentrated on marketing creatively rather than simply spending more.

A spokesman for the Royal Group, which owns Mobitel, declined to comment.

source: the phnom penh post

Star-Cell sales tripled in past year

2010-04-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

TELIASONERA, the managing company of mobile-phone provider Star-Cell, declared dividends to shareholders Wednesday, following a boom year with its Cambodian business.

Following an annual general meeting Wednesday, Stockholm-based TeliaSonera said it would issue dividends of 2.25 kroner (US$0.31) per share, after a rise in Star-Cell net sales of $4.26 million, up from $1.37 million in 2008.

The strong performance in the Cambodian market was not enough to bolster overall earnings, which fell from $2.94 billion in 2008 to $2.59 billion in 2009.

A report, issued by TeliaSonera in March, said Star-Cell recorded 195,000 subscribers , with 4 percent market share in 2009. This is up from an estimated 144,000 subscriptions for 2008.

The company was positioned fourth in the Kingdom’s crowded marketplace, according to the report. But statistics, released by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications last November, estimated Star-Cell to have the seventh-biggest share of domestic suscriber penetration.

The TeliaSonera report said the company may engage in “substantial investment and expenditure” in companies such as Star-Cell, which is also known as Applifone, to build up businesses.

“The success of these investments will depend on a variety of factors beyond TeliaSonera’s control,” the report warned, pointing to licencing concerns, market demand and competition as potential influences.

TeliaSonera has a strong presence in emerging markets, with companies operating in Nepal, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Georgia. It holds a 51 percent stake in TeliaSonera Asia Holding BV, which has a 100 percent stake in Applifone.

In 2009, around 40 percent of TeliaSonera’s net income was derived from emerging markets. Lars Nyberg, the company’s president and CEO, identified the Eurasia region, which includes Cambodia, as a “growth engine” for the business. source: the phnom penh post

Beeline expands Cambodia presence

2010-03-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

MOSCOW-BASED mobile provider Beeline has extended its presence in Cambodia, the firm announced in a statement Monday, at least in terms of sponsorship of new road signs as part of a new marketing strategy.

Beeline has installed 86 road signs in 42 districts along three of Cambodia’s national roads, the company said.

The signs are situated along national Roads 4 to Sihanoukville, 5 to Battambang province and 6 to Siem Riep province, some of the main roads that lead out of Phnom Penh.

According to Beeline’s commercial director, Benoit Janin, the notices, which welcome drivers to districts, have received “warm feedback” so far.
It took the company one month to get permission for the signs from officials.

This latest marketing campaign from the Kingdom’s newest of nine mobile providers comes after the government late last year issued a prakas regulating minimum prices.

Analysts have said the new regulations have pushed telcos to compete on other points aside from tariffs. source: the phnom penh post

Banks launch sell down of $421m Mobitel loan

2010-03-29T01:47:00.000-07:00

ANZ and Standard Bank launched the sell down of a US$421 million 18-month bridging loan this week, to back the Royal Group’s acquisition of Millicom’s majority stake in Mobitel.

The loan covers the Royal Group’s November purchase of Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular SA’s network operations in the Kingdom for $346 million. The acquisitions included a 58.4 percent holding in Mobitel, Royal Telecom International Co Ltd and Cambodia Broadcasting Service Co Ltd.

The debt-leveraged deal is thought to have given the Royal Group 100 percent ownership of Mobitel in an agreement lead-arranged by ANZ bank.

The loan also refinances debt, including a $100 million loan arranged by International Finance Corporation in 2008.

Royal Group Chief Financial Officer Mark Hanna said Thursday that the loan sell down was “standard procedure” in the acquisition, “the biggest of its kind ever done in the region”.

Highlighting the fact that a Cambodian group was able to buy out a majority stake from a major international company, Hanna said: “It really increases the exposure that Cambodia gets.”

He added that the assets bought from Millicom form “a central part” of the Royal Group’s plans for the future.

A spokeswoman for ANZ, which is book-running and arranging the sell down together with Standard Bank, said via email from Singapore Thursday that the loan was put out for syndication on Monday.

Responses are due in the last week of April this year, she said. Lenders have been invited to join at five ticket levels, Reuters reported Thursday, paying interest of as much as 14.73 percent.

“According to Thomson Reuters LPC data, only eight syndicated loans have been completed in Cambodia, and this facility is the country’s biggest-ever corporate deal,” the ANZ spokeswoman added.

The Royal Group partnered global telecoms company Millicom for a total of 14 years.

After a strategic review of its South-East Asia assets, Millicom decided to sell its holding to its joint partner. On announcing the then prospective deal last August, Mikael Grahne, CEO of Millicom, said in a press release: “We are very proud of having played an important role in the development of the leading mobile operator in Cambodia and are very confident of the continued success of Mobitel and its people within the Royal Group.”

Millicom also approved the sale of its Laotian operations to Russia’s JSC Vimpel-Communications (VimpelCom) for $65 million. Moscow-based Vimpelcom is the parent company of Beeline, the newest entrant to Cambodia’s crowded market for mobile-phone service. It announced last week that it had garnered more than 370,000 active subscribers in the Kingdom since its launch last May.

Last week, Huawei Technologies, China’s largest private hi-tech enterprise, signed a $200 million cooperation agreement with Mobitel to extend its network. source: the phnom penh post

Beeline buzzes on Q4 report

2010-03-23T03:02:00.000-07:00

THE number of Beeline active subscribers to mobile phones has climbed beyond 370,000 since its national launch less than a year ago, according to the year-end report of the brand’s Russian parent company.

Beeline active subscribers reached 367,000 at the end of 2009, climbing from 79,000 in the second quarter that year and 95,000 at the end of the third quarter, according to Vimplecom’s annual results.

The subscriber numbers have now risen beyond 370,000, the report added.

Boris Nemsic, CEO of the Moscow-based multinational Vimplecom, announced the findings to company executives and analysts in a conference call late Thursday.

The company is now seeing “much more healthy revenues” in Cambodia, Nemsic said.

The rise in subscribers helped the consolidated gross margin for Southeast Asian units – Cambodia and Vietnam – move into the black for the first time at US$500,000 last quarter after negative margins of $1 million in the second quarter and $700,000 in the third. Quarter-on-quarter revenues in the region were stable at $2.4 million.

During the conference call, Ivan Kim, of Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital, quizzed Nemsic on flat revenues in the face of increased subscribers.

“We had in the previous quarters a very high amount of initial loads and charges on the SIM cards, due to the market entry,” Nemsic said. “What we have now is a much more stable situation, much more healthy revenues — revenues which are based on average revenues per user, which are increasing.”

The fourth-quarter results mark the beginning of “real operation” for the Cambodian venture, Nemsic said, after initial investments accrued during Beeline’s entry in a crowded sector, where nine mobile-phone companies are competing for an estimated five million subscribers, a figure that is rising rapidly.

Pricing promotions among competitors led to government regulations in December that created a price floor on tariffs. All companies are now conforming with the regulations, government officials say, but it remains unclear how the new pricing is affecting subscriber rates.

Beeline representatives in Phnom Penh did not respond to emailed questions Monday.

In November 2009, Mobitel maintained the highest levels of penetration in the subscriber market at 15.05 percent, followed by Mfone at 6.76 percent, Metfone at 6.39 percent, Hello at 4.48 percent and Beeline at 1.83 percent, according to government figures.

“Of course, everybody is aware that in Asia, especially in these booming countries, there is a high [subscriber] volatility based on promotions and so on,” Nemsic told executives. “Overall, the business development in Cambodia is on schedule, and we are satisfied with the progress we achieve today.” source: the phnom penh post

Hello set to launch new Bold

2010-03-09T02:02:00.000-08:00

MOBILE phone operator Hello will introduce Research in Motion’s (RIM) latest Blackberry Bold handset to Cambodia at the end of this month, Brand Manager Gary Foo told the Post by email.

The Kuala Lumpur-based company will ship “a few thousand units” of the new Bold 9700, he said. Hello first launched the 3G Bold handset in the Kingdom in July, following its Blackberry launch at the end of April.

“We’ve seen encouraging take up of our Blackberries in the past couple of months and we would like to continue to capitalise on this trend,” Foo said, adding that the Cambodian smartphone market was expanding as mobile users in the Kingdom increasingly take up more sophisticated handsets.

Financial results from the last quarter showed Hello’s active users increased by 12 percent compared with the previous period, the firm’s strongest quarter-on-quarter subscriber growth in 2009.

Hello CEO Simon Perkins told the Post on February 24 that the Malaysian firm “spent heavily” on its 3G network in the fourth quarter to support data services.

Fourth-quarter financial results released last month showed the firm invested 5 percent of total capital expenditure in Cambodia last year, compared with just 2 percent in 2008. This was against a backdrop of a 47 percent reduction in expenditure over the same period – down to 3.015 billion Malaysian ringgits (US$885.6 million) from 5.652 billion ringgits the previous year.

Market leader Mobitel is the only other operator in Cambodia’s saturated mobile marketplace to offer RIM’s Blackberry handsets and data services. source: the phnom penh post

Axiata hits 17-month high on financials

2010-03-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

KUALA Lumpur-based mobile operator Axiata, which runs Cambodian telecoms firm Hello, started last week brightly by climbing 4.3 percent to a 17-month high of 3.89 ringgits (US$1.16) on March 1, as Citigroup backed the company the same day as the pick of Malaysia’s telcos.

The best performer this year on the Bursa Malaysia fell, however, over the remainder of last week despite a Friday rally that saw the stock rise 0.3 percent by the close to 3.87 ringgits.

Axiata on February 24 announced a $164 million profit for the last quarter, as subscribers rose 34 percent in its regional markets, which included a
30 percent increase in active Cambodian users, overall results that led financial analysts to single out the stock for future gains.

Rival Vimpelcom, which operates as Beeline in the Kingdom, posted a strong end to last week, rising 2.73 percent Friday on the New York Stock Exchange to $18.45. The stock was down 0.54 percent for the week.

Analysts are predicting the Moscow-based operator will post healthy group earnings when fourth-quarter results come out Wednesday.

OZ Minerals, which operates a number of mining concessions in eastern Cambodia, last week recorded a turnaround to a recent bad run.

The stock soared 7.69 percent over the past five days trading in Sydney, culminating in a 2.27 percent rise by Friday’s close to A$1.12 (US$1.02) after RBC Capital on Wednesday raised the stock to “outperform”. source: the phnom penh post

Viettel conquers Cambodia’s mobile market

2010-02-28T07:11:00.000-08:00

VietNamNet Bridge – Viettel Cambodia, a subsidiary of Viet Nam's military-run telecom service provider, now owns 42 per cent of the base transceiver stations (BTS) and 88 per cent the optic-fibre cable in Cambodia.

In terms of subscribers, it now holds the second place just six months after becoming operational.

The telecom provider aims to obtain a turnover of US$250 million this year. It also plans to have 3,000 BTS for 2G services and 1,500 BTS for its 3G network. It is also looking to increase its optic-fibre cable network to between 15,000 and 16,000 kilometres.

Viettel said it was looking to have a 46 per cent share of the fixed-line subscriber market, and 90 per cent of the mobile phone and ADSL markets.

The group is now the leading Vietnamese investor in foreign countries.

This year, it plans to invest in Bangladesh, while expanding its market share in other foreign countries.

The group said its targeted turnover this year was VND75 trillion to VND78 trillion ($4-4.2 billion), an increase of 60 per cent to 70 per cent against last year.

In the domestic market, its BTS and optic-fibre cable infrastructure has increased by 50 per cent. It has 26,000 stations for 2G and 3G services and 90,000 kilometres of cable.

The telecom provider plans to have 7,000 operational BTS for 3G services in Viet Nam.

Viettel deputy general director Nguyen Manh Hung said the group would be responsible for designing its products, while they would be assembled in mainland China or Taiwan.

Hung said his company decided to invest in producing made-in-Viet Nam mobile phone products to meet the demand of Viet Nam's 40 million subscribers. It is anticipated that there will be 50 million subscribers by the end of this year.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

Beeline adjusts tariffs in bid to conform with pricing rules

2010-02-23T03:25:00.000-08:00

BEELINE, the Moscow-based mobile-phone company at the centre of a price-dumping dispute that led to the government issuing edicts to regulate the sector at the end of last year, has announced it has raised prices to confirm with the new regulations.

In a text message distributed late Sunday, the operator told users it had ended its “Super Zero” pricing plan enacted in September that at the time the firm described as “more aggressive” than the controversial “Boom” tariff it replaced following complaints from the rest of the sector.

“Based on MPTC prakas! Your Super Zero price plan will now be changed to Super Plus price plan,” said the message, referring to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications prakas, or edict, issued in December that set minimum tariffs across the sector.

The new tariff was effective from Monday, it added.

However, it remained unclear whether the new price plan conformed with the prakas, given that within-network callers on Beeline would only be charged US$0.06 per minute for the first two minutes of a call of up to 15 minutes, according to details of the plan issued Monday by Beeline’s Lead PR and Media Specialist Nhem Socheata. Between the third and 15th minute, customers would be able to call each other at no additional charge.

According to December’s prakas, within-network calls are supposed to be no lower than $0.045 per minute; however, mobile operators are permitted to run temporary price promotions if they receive prior approval from MPTC. There was no indication as to whether the Beeline promotion was temporary or had received approval.

A Beeline service operator said Monday that there was no specific end date for the new pricing plan, but that users would be informed when alterations were made.

Nhem Socheata did not answer questions asking Beeline to elaborate Monday.

“Beeline has launched its new tariff plan compliant with [the] MPTC prakas– Super Plus – on February 22,” she said in an emailed statement. “This plan is applicable for all new and existing subscribers.”

MPTC Director General Mao Chakrya declined to comment on whether Beeline’s new tariff complied with his ministry’s regulations, referring all questions to the company.

From Monday, Beeline said it would price across-network calls at $0.06 per minute. The new regulations set a minimum tariff of $0.0595 per minute for calls between users on different networks.

This week’s move by Beeline, which is operated by Russia’s Vimpelcom Ltd, comes after months of wrangling particularly with market leader Mobitel, which in August took legal action against its rival over allegations of illegal use of its prefixes and price-dumping. The status of the case remains unclear.

Since around the middle of last year Mobitel sought to put pressure on Beeline – the newest entrant in the crowded Cambodian mobile sector – to raise its cross-network tariffs under the former “Boom” plan which charged just $0.05 per minute, a price other operators also said violated minimum tariff agreements. The ministry subsequently appeared to agree, as it established a minimum tariff in a prakas in December.

Under a separate, earlier tariff also issued in the wake of the dispute, MPTC ruled that providers should guarantee coverage across networks after Beeline alleged Mobitel was deliberately blocking interconnectivity in retaliation for its low prices.

source: the phnom penh post

Govt issues crackdown on telcos

2010-02-10T01:49:00.000-08:00

LEADING mobile-phone operators issued new tariffs Tuesday to conform to a government prakas on pricing, following a crunch meeting at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPTC) Monday.

In December, mobile-phone operators were ordered by MPTC and the Ministry of Finance to raise tariffs to at least US$0.045 per minute in a bid to end a price war that the government felt was undermining profitability in the sector.

At the time, companies had just 15 days to comply. Though some did so almost immediately, others challenged the edict.

This week, nearly two months after the original order, some cut-price price plans offering reduced-rate calls were still in place.

The situation was brought to a head Monday at a meeting held at the MPTC head office.

A telecoms executive, who declined to be named, said that an MPTC official handed each operator a sealed envelope at the gathering.

At least two mobile companies received the same letter, seen by the Post on Tuesday: a warning signed by the Council of Ministers on February 2 that outlined the punishments that would result from failure to comply with the prakas, which was ratified by Prime Minister Hun Sen on January 28.

The letter says companies face a three-month suspension of their operating licences if they fail to comply. The licences would then be terminated if inaction continued, the letter stated.

On Monday, Mao Chakrya, director general of MPTC, confirmed that the meeting was held as a result of companies violating the prakas.

“We had left the operators about two months to comply. Why did they not change then? When the companies go back from this meeting, they will have to change,” he said.

Action has quickly followed the government’s strong-line approach. On Tuesday, phone companies including Smart Phone, qb and Mfone announced new tariff rates.

Today Smart Phone changed rates on its WOW tariff to $0.05 a minute. In December, when the prakas was first enforced, the company offered customers up to 30 minutes of free calls a day within the Smart Mobile network when they topped up with $5 or more of credit.

On Tuesday, its Web site stated that Smart Mobile users could enjoy free calls for only $0.10 per day.

Speaking to the Post, Thomas Hundt, Smart Phone CEO, confirmed that the new tariff rate – which is set to be in place for only a few weeks until a new tariff is introduced on February 28 – was made to conform to the government order.

He said that the prakas has not aided his business, and he declined to discuss any marketing plans to boost customer numbers in the future.

Phone company qb also issued a new price plan, called qbfr3dom, to comply with the regulations.

Its customers will now be charged $0.05 per minute for in-network calls and $0.07 for across-network calls. Before, customers paid $3 for 300 minutes’ worth of on-network calls.

A qb staff member, who declined to be named, said that the new price went into effect on Tuesday.

The source said that it would take about a month to move all its customers – many of whom were said to be unhappy about paying higher rates – to the plan because of an obligation to provide its previous rates to customers who had already signed up.

“We have to comply with the regulations set out by the prakas,” he said. “But we are experiencing serious problems with our customers and have changed our price plan twice already.”

Mfone also announced that a new tariff, charging $0.078 per minute, would be in effect on its network today.

A Star Cell call centre worker told the Post on Tuesday that the company intended to leave its pricing unchanged in January.

She said that Star Cell users are charged $0.05 per minute for within-network calls, and $0.07 per minute for across-network calls.

She added that from 12pm to 6am, in-network calls would be charged $0.025 per minute. The prakas minimum is $0.045.

Som Kongkea from Star Cell’s corporate affairs division said the promotion had been approved by MPTC.

Other operators are now considering how to make the most of their business now that the price war is set to end.

“As far as we understand, all of our tariffs comply,” said Hello CEO Simon Perkins, adding that his firm was in the process of applying for MPTC permission to run new promotions, a requirement under the recently updated regulations. Source: The Phnom Penh Post

WING set to cover all of Cambodia

2010-01-26T03:34:00.001-08:00

THE mobile money transfer system WING will operate fully in Mondulkiri and Rattanakiri provinces by the end of the month, Managing Director Brad Jones said Monday, giving the service full coverage in the Kingdom for the first time.

Having launched one year ago, WING will allow customers to “cash out” for the first time in the two provinces from next week, Jones said.

Previously WING users could transfer money there on the service’s four partner mobile operators – Hello, qb, Smart Mobile and Mfone – but could not collect the money.

“This week we have people who are setting up Wing cash X-press outlets in Rattanakiri and Modulkiri which now gives us access to every province in Cambodia,” Jones told the Post.

He added that the expansion was the result of a A$1.5 million (US$975,000) grant from the Australian government (via Ausaid) made last year.

“We have been using that [Ausaid] grant to actually further development of WING to provincial areas” Jones said.

WING, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ANZ Bank, formally launched its operation in the kingdom on January 21 last year.

Jones said that during the first year of operations, WING had gained 85,000 users, adding that the growth rate of its users was increasing.

“In the first month, we put on maybe 4,000 to 5,000 customers. In our last month, we put on close to 20,000 customers,” he said, adding that the network aspect of the WING business model meant growth would rise at an increasing rate.

“To use WING, you need to have your friend or family on WING, so as more and more people start to use WING, it becomes more useful for people who are already WING’s customers,” he said.

The electronic payment service had also benefited from a rising number of mobile providers signing up over the past 12 months, the latest being Mfone in October.

“Smart Mobile is pleased on the results of the partnership since the launch,” CEO Thomas Hundt said by email Monday.

The two companies started to work together from the start of August.

It remained unclear how much revenue WING had generated in its first 12 months of operations.

Jones declined to give a breakdown of financial results Monday. “We don’t disclose the actual figure in terms of what’s been transacted, but I can tell you … [there has been] significant growth month on month in both the volume of transactions we have and the value of transactions.”

WING is completely dependent on coverage by its four mobile partners, Jones admitted, given that transactions are conducted by mobile phone.

WING is not available with Mobitel, the country’s mobile leader in terms of market share, or on Metfone, which is understood to cover the largest area of any mobile service in the Kingdom.

The Vietnamese operator’s Cambodia CEO Nguyen Duy Tho told the Post in October that by the end of November last year, Metfone had been due to cover between 90 and 95 percent of the Kingdom’s population of about 14 million people.

“If there isn’t coverage of that particular network, but there is coverage for Hello, they might borrow someone’s phone who is on Hello, and use the WING service,” Jones said, adding that most people would have a SIM card with one of the four operators working with WING.

Cambodia’s mobile-phone users are notorious for posessing a selection of SIM cards in a bid to make the most of tariffs that have become increasingly competitive as new mobile phone companies have entered the market.

WING had held discussions with other operators, he added, but “we don’t have concrete plans at this stage”.

“We’re not actively looking to partner with them,” he added.

Mobitel, which is wholly owned by the Royal Group, the joint-venture partner with ANZ in ANZ Royal Bank, is understood to be developing its own mobile money transfer network.

Jones said he recognised that another mobile operator was looking to set up a rival mobile payment system and that “we welcome the competition in this market”.

He added that he had not had discussions with Mobitel with which WING “are unlikely to work with”. Mobitel was going in its “own direction”, Jones said.

By not working with the market leader, it was important that WING build a strong customer and provider base, he said. source: the phnom penh post

Worried telcos pen letter to Hun SenWorried telcos pen letter to Hun Sen

2010-01-22T01:59:00.000-08:00

THE row over government distribution of overlapping frequency licences in the telecoms industry escalated Thursday when a letter of complaint, signed by top officials from seven leading businesses, was delivered to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The document, passed to the premier through his Cabinet, formally lodged concerns about the way the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication awards frequency licences in the sector and was endorsed by CEOs of some of the Kingdom’s largest telecommunications companies.

On Wednesday, the Post reported that widespread disaffection was spreading through the business community after a TV company was licensed to broadcast on a frequency already used by nine Internet service providers.

Without a valid licence, companies are unable to provide services that use radio frequency, such as the Internet or mobile-phone networks, to the public.

According to the letter, a permit is the “foundation stone” for businesses on which tens of millions of US dollars’ worth of telecoms infrastructure is built.

An industry insider, who requested anonymity, explained that if multiple companies were to use the same frequency, “no telecommunications or broadcast network could function with any level of quality. Massive signal interference would make consumers so disgusted, they’d just give up.”

The letter – which has been seen by the Post – demands that providers’ existing licences be honoured and discusses the ramifications of multiple licensing upon future investment in the Kingdom. It was sent after talks between companies and the ministry failed to reach a resolution.

Recently awarded licences send “the investment community, both current and potential, the wrong message about investment protection and rule of law in Cambodia”, the letter reads in part.

“Perceptions that licences issued by a government ministry such as MPTC are valueless cannot be allowed to spread.”

The letter continues: “It would hurt investment in the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) that Cambodia needs.”

The dispatch added that “the sweeping nature” of the new permit – awarded to company Star Digital TV for the large 2.5GHz to 2.7GHz of spectrum – immediately impacts on businesses and the 2,000 subscribers who use the new WiMAX wireless Internet services provided by the ISPs.

The letter asks Hun Sen to provide assurances to all holders of existing radio frequency licences that their bandwidth will not be taken away or reallocated to other groups.

The letter was signed by Sreang Tito, president and CEO of Angkor Data Communication Group; Sok Channda, CEO and president of Cambodia Data Communication Co Ltd; Hyam Bolande, vice president of Chuan Wei; Ngeth Chanthol, owner of Wicam; Khan Angkeabot, CEO of Wireless IP; Chris Maloy, CEO of AZ Communication Group; and Paul Blanche Horgan, CEO of Ezecom.

Representatives from Ezecom and AZ Communications signed the letter despite not being directly affected by multiple licensing, as a sign of industry solidarity, an industry expert said.

An official with one affected licence holder, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote via email: “It’s unprecedented for operators to join together and voice collectively their concerns in this way, and it really bespeaks the gravity of the situation.”

When approached by the Post on Thursday night, Telecommunications Ministry Director General Moa Chakrya said he had no knowledge of the letter and declined to comment about the issuing of the licence to Star Digital TV.

An assistant to the prime minister did not answer calls on Thursday, and the Post was told Wednesday that the manager of Digital Star TV was travelling until next week. source: the phnom penh post

Viettel starts tests on new Cambodian 3G network

2010-01-19T05:50:00.000-08:00

MOBILE-phone company Viettel, which operates under the brand name Metfone, is already testing 3G services ahead of a planned launch this year, according to Nguyen Duy Tho, the firm’s managing director in Cambodia.

The Vietnamese firm plans to install 1,500 3G stations in the first quarter, he said by email Monday, and will later extend coverage to all districts, although no time frame was given for the launch or the schedule for upgrading coverage. Nguyen Duy Tho told the Post at the end of October that the service would be launched at the beginning of this year.

“Currently, we are testing 3G to prepare for [an] official launching [of] this service in 2010,” he said.

Viettel launched its 3G network in Laos in October.

The firm will also add a further 3,000 2G stations and 13,000 kilometres of cable during the first quarter, said Nguyen Duy Tho. The company had met its Cambodia revenue target for 2009, he added, without giving further details.

Vietnam’s Than Nien News.com reported Saturday that the firm generated US$70 million in revenues from Cambodia and Laos last year. Vietnamese media reports in September said Viettel was expecting revenues of $50 million in Cambodia for 2009, without citing a source for the information.

Viettel recorded total pre-tax profits of more than 10 trillion dong ($541 million) last year with users increasing 50 percent, according to Deputy CEO Nguyen Manh Hung, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Viettel’s mobile-phone service was its strongest source of revenues in 2009, said Nguyen Duy Tho – the firm also operates an Internet service in the Kingdom – however, “in terms of return on investment, mobile has not” shown the most potential.

The firm has invested $250 million in Cambodia and Laos, Bloomberg reported without breaking down the investment that went to the Kingdom.

Nguyen Duy Tho declined to set a revenue target for 2010, but gave Viettel’s ambitious targets for Cambodia in the longer term. The Vietnamese operator is aiming to capture 40 percent of the overall mobile market, he said, 80 percent of the broadband Internet market and 80 percent of the telecoms landline market.

Viettel, which is owned by the Vietnamese military, officially launched its mobile-phone service in February and began distributing SIM cards at the end of 2008. Source; the Phnom Penh Post

Mobile Phone Companies Begin Raising Rates

2010-01-09T18:29:00.001-08:00

Mobile phone companies have begun adjusting their rates in accordance to a government order that puts a price floor on the increasingly competitive industry.

Star-Cell 098, for example, had been running a promotion that offered call rates between $0.01 and $0.02 per minute, but since Dec. 22, the company has raised its rates by more than $0.05.

“We ended the promotion,” a customer service representative told VOA Khmer. “The previous price did not adhere to the directive of the ministries. From now on it’s $0.05 for internal calls and $0.07 for external calls.”

Economic analysts have said the new directive will hurt competition and favor larger mobile phone companies, but officials say they had no choice but to intervene in what had become a prolonged price war.

“The new tariff makes clients complain a lot, but we have to respect the ministries,” said Yuth Srey Noch, a customer service representative for Excell 018, which had relied heavily on low rates to increase its customer base.

The company will also drop a promotion that offered free calls for a base rate of $3 per month, a strategy that had “helped the company in competitiveness,” Yuth Srey Noch said.

The directive, issued by the telecom and finance ministries in early December, requires minimum rates of $0.045 for calls made within a network and $0.0595 for calls outside a network.

Mobitel, which has the country’s widest network, maintains prices between $0.07 and $0.10 per minute.

Now other phone companies will have to consider new rate plans. Beeline 090, Cube 013, Hello 016, Mfone 011 and Smart 010 had the lowest rates, sometimes charged less than $0.01 per minute.

Kiril Manuski, marketing manager for Smart 010, said the directive would hurt the company’s competitiveness, but representatives were continuing negotiations with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to find a new, appropriate rate.

Customers ranging from students to government staff, NGO workers to laborers, say they lose out with the new directive.

“I have to save and cut off some duration of calls,” said a Phnom Penh student.

“It will not be easy for me when the tariff goes up, because I have to shorten calls, and I will have to meet people face to face instead of calling them,” said a businessman who transports goods from Phnom Penh to Prey Veng province.

Investors, meanwhile, will add the price of calls to their lists of complaints, which includes high prices for water and electricity and poor infrastructure, all of which make running businesses in Cambodia difficult.

“Investors must care about the price for telephone calls,” said Mao Savin, a business adviser for Emerging Market Consulting.

Telecom Minister So Khun said the new price was carefully considered and “will not affect” the telecommunications industry.

Cambodia has the highest telecom rates in Asean, which “discourages” foreign investment, according to the UNDP. (In Vietnam and Thailand, rates are lower than $0.03 a minute.)

“The government should not follow a private company to make an affect on the common interest,” said Van Sou Ieng, president of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia. “On the contrary, the government must allow competition to lower the tariff, which is part of Cambodian competitiveness, to attract investors.”

Cambodia has an estimated 4 million phone owners, but it also has 30 percent of its population living on less than a dollar a day.

Meanwhile, taxes on the nine mobile phone companies add up to around $30 million a year in revenue for the government.

Ou Bunlong, secretary of state for the Ministry of Economy and Finance, said the government will earn more from the higher call rates. The ministry was not yet sure whether the new directive will always be positive and will review the policy after its first two months, he said. Source: VOA news

Smart Mobile defiant on mobile-tariff rules

2009-12-28T00:31:00.000-08:00

PHONE operator Smart Mobile has left its tariffs unchanged despite a government edict setting minimum prices in the sector, saying it has “severe concerns and reservations” over the new pricing regulations.

Smart Mobile Chief Executive Officer Thomas Hundt also said the time frame for compliance with the government prakas, which was signed December 7 and took effect December 22, was unreasonable.

“Smart Mobile is currently conducting discussions with [the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications] in regard to the prakas; however, Smart Mobile’s WOW offer remains valid unchanged until further notice,” he said.

“Besides Smart Mobile’s general severe concerns and reservations in regard to this regulation, a potential revision of Smart Mobile’s tariff plan does require significantly more time than granted with the prakas.”

His comments followed a Post article last Thursday that mistakenly said the company had dropped its free minutes offering from its WOW Tariff, which gives customers up to 30 minutes of free calls a day within the Smart Mobile network when they top up with $5 or more of credit.

Those who top up with less also get free minutes, but not as many.

That article came after Smart Mobile dropped reference to the free minutes from the pricing schedule published on its Web site. “From now on, you can enjoy great calling rates within the network and across network calls are charged at only 2 cents per 15 seconds,” the Web site now states.

Mao Chakrya, director general at the telecoms ministry, said last week that operators which fail to comply with the edict by the deadline risk the suspension or cancellation of their operating licences.

Into line
Most of the Kingdom’s nine operators were already in line with the minimum tariffs or have since altered their pricing structures.

Only Smart Mobile, qb, which is owned by CADCOMMS, and Beeline appear to have pricing structures at odds with the new directive, which bans free minutes and sets minimum tariffs of $0.045 per minute, not including taxes, for calls within a network.

It also makes binding a long-standing agreement setting the cost for across-network calls at $0.0595 per minute.

Special call promotions of up to one month are possible in which within-network calls can drop to 50 percent of the minimum tariff, but these require prior approval. source: the phnom penh post

Telecom War Prompts Ministry Price Floor

2009-12-23T18:18:00.000-08:00

A telecom price war that saw rates for callers plummet amid steep competition will cease, thanks to a government-directed floor that analysts say runs counter to the ideas of a free market.

An influx of companies into the country’s nascent phone market produced deep reductions in per-minute charges in recent years, with some rates offered as zero within networks.

The new policy now will not allow competitors to charge below $0.045 per minute within a network, nor $0.0595 for cross-network calls.

A government official said the price floor was the only way to stop an escalating problem, one that had already led to a dispute between the market leader, Mobitel, and a new competitor, the Russian operation Beeline. The price floor came after a series of directives failed to stop the competitive pricing.

Economic analysts said the new order will discourage investment and take away price benefits for consumers.

“To set a price is contrary to the free market, and makes consumers who used a lower price to lose benefit,” said Chan Sophal, president of the Economists Association of Cambodia.

Cambodia’s 1993 constitution says it will abide by a free market system, where buyers and sellers set prices.

The government should only intervene in pricing where people’s livings are concerned, Chan Sophal said.

The price measure could also contradict Cambodia’s investment law, which states that the government will not set prices on products or services for licensed companies, analysts said.

“Price intervention by the state is clearly contrary to the investment law,” said Ly Tay Seng, CEO of the HBS law firm and consultancy. “It will not only impact current investors, but also discourage investors who want to invest in the country.”

Telecommunications Minister So Khun rejected the criticisms, saying the state had a right to “stand as an arbitrator.”

“It is not about intervention, but to be as an arbitrator, to not let companies compete by killing each other,” he said. “They can compete on quality and coverage area.”

The new policy could not be frozen, he said, but the price might be adjusted following requests by operators. The ministry will meet with operators individually in coming months to find a better solution, he said.

Lim Sovanara, an economist for UNDP, said the time was not yet right for set prices. A price floor will benefit larger, established companies, keeping smaller one less competitive.

“If you want to mitigate the adverse impact on a certain segment of society, it is usually not the best to act on the price like this,” said Eric Sidgwick, a senior economist for the ADB. “Maybe you leave the price to go where it needs to go in the market, and you find an alternative mechanism to compensate those who are affected.”

Cambodia has more the 4 million phone users, amid a population of 14 million, a potentially lucrative tax base for the government, with much potential for expansion.

Senior officials at various smaller phone companies declined to comment, but staff members say they are preparing to set a new price in January. source: VOA news

Pricing deadline looms for telcos

2009-12-22T20:18:00.001-08:00

ASENIOR telecoms official warned Monday that the government would begin enforcing a new pricing prakas, or edict, from today, and mobile providers remained tight-lipped about tariff changes.

Call-centre operators spoken to by the Post said changes were imminent, but that they had not yet been notified by managers.

The need for a pricing and marketing revamp throughout the sector follows a government inter-ministerial prakas announced on December 10 that gave operators 15 days from the date it was signed by Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun and Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhun, December 7.

Mao Chakrya, director general at the Telecoms Ministry, confirmed the deadline and said the ministry would begin investigating operators for compliance this week.

“They need to comply from Tuesday, and we will be looking closely at what they do,” he said Monday.

The new edict bars operators from offering calls within their networks below US$0.045 per minute, not including taxes. It also made binding a long-standing agreement setting the cost for across-network calls at $0.0595 per minute.

Special call promotions of up to one month are possible in which within-network calls can drop to 50 percent of the minimum tariff, but these require prior approval.

Companies change tariffs
Mobile-phone operator Star-Cell appeared to be treating the deadline seriously, terminating registration today for a special mobile-phone tariff offering $0.01 per minute for calls to other Star-Cell customers and $0.07 per minute across networks.

The promotion was due to run until December 31, though the operator said customers who had already registered would continue to receive the discounted calls.

The operator, which is owned by Applifone Co, has set its within-network tariffs at $0.05 per minute and across-network tariffs at $0.10 per minute, above the government’s new minimum tariff. However, off-peak calls between midnight and 7am are set at $0.025 and $0.08 within and across networks, respectively.

Star-Cell Marketing Director Chong Harth referred questions to Chief Executive Centre Tolga Gedikoglu, but he did not reply for a request for comment.

Mobitel has announced on its Web site a new tariff schedule from today, with calls within the network charged at $0.05 per minute and across network at $0.10.

The situation at qb is potentially more complex, with 300 minutes of within-network calls bundled in a $3 monthly package including voice, SMS and MMS, which works out at just $0.01 per minute for the voice calls alone.

Across-network tariffs are set at $0.10 per minute, and within-network calls over the monthly limit at $0.02 per minute.

A network centre operator said Monday that he had not been informed of any plan to change the tariff.

Farouq Abu Saleh, the chief operating officer at CADCOMMS, which operates the qb network, did not reply to an emailed request for information on the company’s pricing plans, and Director Ben Khudair could not be reached Monday.

Metfone, operated by Viettel, a subsidiary of the Vietnamese military, has two prepaid packages, both set above the minimum tariff.

Mfone is also in line with the new edict, aside from its off-peak calls between midnight and 7am, which are charged at just $0.024 per minute.
Excel charges $0.03 and $0.07 per minute for within- and across-network calls, respectively.

An Excel call-centre operator said Monday that prices were scheduled to change in the New Year, but added she did not have details at this stage.
A call-centre operator at Beeline said the company’s Super Zero tariff, which charges

users only for one minute for the first 15 of any call within the Beeline network, would finish at the end of the year to be replaced by new tariff packages.

However, he said the call centre had not yet been given details. Beeline no longer advertises the package on its Web site.

Beeline General Director Gael Campan said last week he was preparing a response and would release details at a later date. He could not be reached for comment Monday.

Thomas Hundt, chief executive officer at Smart Mobile, which allows users to make free calls for up to 30 minutes each day for those who top up with $5 or more of credit, said the company was not yet ready to release a statement.

A Smart Mobile call-centre operator spoken to by the Post said she had not heard of any impending changes. source: the phnom penh post

Expansion target met early, says Beeline

2009-12-20T23:48:00.001-08:00

VIMPELCOM, owner of mobile operator Beeline, has extended phone coverage to two-thirds of people in Cambodia ahead of schedule, Gael Campan, general director of the company’s operations in the Kingdom, said Thursday.

“In May we made a commitment to cover 66 percent of the country’s population by the end of the year,” he said, adding that the company had passed that benchmark in mid-December, earlier than it had planned.

The Moscow-based firm has established a network of 429 mobile phone towers in 18 provinces, designed to handle “more than 1 million calls per hour”, said Campan, adding that the company intends to have some degree of mobile coverage in all provinces in the Kingdom by the second quarter of 2010.

Speaking Thursday at what he called “the core”, the centre of the firm’s technological operations in Cambodia, located near Takhmao in Kandal province, Campan declined to discuss the cost of these infrastructure investments, saying it would give competitors an unfair advantage.

Vimpelcom, the latest entrant to the Cambodian mobile market, has pursued rapid development for its Beeline brand in Southeast Asia, launching in May in the Kingdom and July in Vietnam.

In September the firm announced it had agreed to acquire Millicom SA’s 78 percent stake in Millicom Laos Co for about US$66 million, the latest addition to what it calls its “Southeast Asian cluster”.

Beeline is currently facing a lawsuit filed by competitor Mobitel with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court in August.

Viettel’s managing director, Nguyen Duy Tho, told the Post this week that the company has 2,400 base transceiver stations active and plans to have 3,000 in operation by the end of 2009 – one in every commune. source: the phnom penh post

Going mobile a stimulating affair

2009-12-20T23:47:00.000-08:00

As mobile-phone providers expand coverage into the farthest reaches of the Kingdom, experts and supporters of the technology are anticipating it will unlock productivity and economic growth across the country.

“People are using mobile phones to share information with customers and suppliers in a way that just hasn’t been possible before,” said John Brinsden, Acleda Bank vice chairman. “Disseminating information by phone helps people get better prices based on supply and demand,” he said.

Yang Sang Koma, the director of the Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), said the benefits were particularly obvious in rural areas.

“Mobile phones help people solve problems,” he said. “Certainly phones can be expensive, but farmers use them to gain knowledge about prices and markets, making back more money than they spend on their phones.”

For every 10 percent increase in mobile teledensity, a measure of the number of phones per 100 people in a given area, there is a 0.7 percent growth in economic output in the area, according to Hamadoun Toure, secretary general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Although no studies have been done in Cambodia, as the Kingdom’s nine mobile-phone operators establish base transceiver stations across the country, they are driving mobile-phone demand in the most remote places.

Brinsden said he follows advancements in rural coverage closely as the bank prepares to launch mobile-banking services next year, potentially bringing more customers within reach of his bank.

New users are also saying that mobile phones have improved their financial well-being.

Duch Sokhom, the commune chief on Koh Rong Island, an hour’s boat trip from Sihanoukville, said his fishing-oriented village received only intermittent coverage from a base transmitter station (BTS) on another island, but that people were clamoring for phones to support their livelihoods.

“Life here is better than in the past,” he said. “No one forced mobile phones on the residents here; it’s just easier to contact other people, and it takes less time to solve problems.”

A fisherman on neighbouring Koh Rong Sanlen island said he almost immediately saw financial benefits through better access to market information after purchasing his first phone four months ago.

“In the past, middlemen met the fishermen at the docks, and I had to take the price they offered,” he said. “Sometimes I had fish, but no one showed up to buy, but now I can contact many people and get the best price for the fish, and also take it directly to them.”

Although his monthly phone bills approach US$15, he reckoned he more than offset the cost through higher profits.

On the same island, shopkeeper Pthan Thu Son also noted an increase in productivity after she went mobile. To stock her merchandise for sale, she used to close shop and travel to Sihanoukville every 10 to 15 days. “Now I call ahead to place my orders, and I can find the best prices,” she said.

“I give my money to a boat operator going to the market, and he comes back with goods for my shop.”

She said she also saves around $25 per trip by being able to search ahead for the best prices.

The greatest benefits from mobile phones tends to accrue to those in competitive sectors, or who had to rely on middlemen to get goods to market. For those enjoying a monopoly in an island-based industry, such as Koh Rong Sanlen’s lone boat builder and repairer Chia Sang, mobile coverage has had limited impact.

“Before, customers would come to me to repair their boats,” he said. “Now they call ahead and still come to me to repair their boats. I have no need for my phone.”

On September 3 this year, mobile-phone operator Metfone switched on a tower on military-controlled Koh Tang island, three hours by boat from Sihanoukville. In a strange twist, Metfone is operated by Viettel, a subsidiary of the Vietnamese military.

Its Cambodian counterparts saw an almost immediate practical benefit from Viettel’s arrival on the island.

“Of course it was difficult to communicate with boats and other headquarters before mobile phones, but it was especially hard for soldiers stationed here to communicate with family,” said military spokesperson Van Dy.

Centred atop the island’s highest point, coverage from the BTS extends some 50 kilometres over the open seas, according to Viettel technician Ouch Touch, who visits once a week for maintenance purposes.

Beyond voice
Those in range of the signal are already looking to move beyond making mobile-phone calls, seeking also to use their phones to access data over the Internet.

“We need the Internet,” said Duch Sokhom. “People don’t know how to use the Internet, but this is a human resources problem. People will learn very fast, like they did with mobile phones.”

Across in Sihanoukville, Viettel team leader Hour David was installing a broadband Internet connection in a restaurant. With packages starting at $20, he said it was still beyond the reach of most people in the region. “So far we sell the Internet mostly to foreigners and businesses like restaurants, although we are beginning to set up access for more university students,” he said.

Sihanoukville local Oaun Narm Koeu, who sells plaster for use in construction, said he had been logging in frequently to keep up to date on border tension with Thailand, where he sourced his materials. “I always check this information on the Internet, but I would be happier if I could get the Internet on my phone,” he said.

ACLEDA’s Brinsden said mobile phones have the potential to leapfrog broadband and fixed-line Internet in rural areas as people have already become accustomed to accessing information through mobile phones.

But providing mobile-phone coverage in remote areas is no easy task, and far from profitable. It cost around $150,000 and took 40 Viettel employees some 35 days to erect a tower on Koh Tang island and switch on the base transceiver station, according to Hoang Anb Tuan, Metfone’s director in Preah Sihanouk province.

With only 100 users on the island, a return on that investment is unlikely to be seen anytime soon. However, Managing Director Nguyen Duy Tho said the decision still made sense from a business as well as a social perspective.

“This is our business philosophy,” he said. “Some towers don’t make money, but technically they improve network quality and coverage.”

The company has 2,400 base transceiver stations currently active and plans to have 3,000 in operation by the end of 2009, one in every commune, he said, representing a significant investment.

The social benefits to users also had almost unlimited brand value, he added, citing the potential for the firm’s coverage off the south coast of Cambodia to save lives. “The tower may not make money, but if a fisherman, for example, is fishing near our tower and a storm hits, he can phone for emergency help,” he said.

“If you were me, would you install such a tower?” Source: the phnome penh post

Ministry ends free mobile call promotion

2009-12-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

Following a month-long feud between the mobile telephone companies MobiTel and Beeline, who traded accusations over price dumping and blocking of calls, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications plans to unveil a new directive today, setting minimum prices and putting an end to free call promotion.

Minister So Khun declined yesterday to give details on the directive signed Friday, which follows a letter from Prime Minister Hun Sen warning mobile phone firms they could lose their operating licenses if they continue to block calls between their networks and continue to give below cost calls to their customers.

In September, Beeline and accused MobiTel of blocking calls from its network to MobiTel’s customers. MobiTel in turn accused Beeline of price dumping by charging below $0.06 for between-network calls.

So Khun said that without the directive “violators will exploit the other companies with their prices.”

“It’s to make fair competition and to have rules,” he continued.

He declined to supply a copy of the directive yesterday or to give details on how interconnectivity problems will be resolved by the new rules.

Simon Perkins, CEO of Hello network, said that his company had received a copy of the directive and was still determining its exact meaning. But he said he understood the minimum price for between-network calls to be $0.07 and pricing on in-network calls to be $0.055, though he was waiting for clarification.

“This is a measure that MPTC has had to do because there are no competition laws,” he said. Hello, unlike several other competitors, doesn’t offer free call promotions. He said that Hello could benefit from the directive as some companies raise their prices but that this will depend on the enforcement of the law.

Nhem Socheata, a media specialist for Beeline, said her company had no comment because they had not seen any official documents. Mark Hanna, Chief Financial Officer of MobiTel, could not be reached for comment.

(Source: The Cambodia Daily, Wednesday, December 9, 2009)

Mobile leaders welcome rates edict

2009-12-14T17:26:00.000-08:00

Cambodia’s most established mobile-phone providers have welcomed a move by the government to set new minimum tariffs and end a price war that they say has kept the sector from developing.

Newer entrants to the increasingly competitive telecoms market, however, remain tight-lipped about the pricing rules announced Wednesday that set a minimum charge of US$0.045 per minute for calls within an operator’s network and $0.0595 for calls across networks, saying they have yet to evaluate how the regulations will impact their operations.

Simon Perkins, chief executive officer of Hello, one of the top four operators by users and an early entrant to the sector, has long been a supporter of minimum pricing and said that stability in the sector will enable operators to return to investing in network expansion and quality improvements.

Perkins could not be reached for comment, but Hello’s chief financial officer, Phillip Wong, called the prakas, or edict, “an excellent piece of work” at its unveiling last week.

“The prakas is excellent for operators, excellent for the government, which has shown clear leadership, and hopefully, it will be good for the people who will see better quality,” he said.

Metfone Managing Director Nguyen Duy Tho said the Vietnam-backed service provider, which is competing with market leader Mobitel for top spot among the Kingdom’s operators, was unfazed by the new rules.

He said that ending the price war was crucial for the development of the sector, as it will enable operators to focus on network quality and service offerings rather than only pricing.

“Price is an important consideration, but it is not everything,” he said. “Now, it is high time for us to think about quality, coverage area and take care of our customers.”

Neither Smart Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Kirill Mankovsky nor Beeline General Director Gael Campan would comment on the regulations, both saying they had yet to analyse the likely impact.

But both Smart Mobile’s WOW tariff and Beeline’s Boom plan – the latter the target of accusations of price-dumping by Mobitel – appear to be in violation of the new pricing structure.

Smart’s WOW tariff allows users to make free calls for up to 30 minutes each day for those who top up with $5 or more of credit.

Beeline’s Super Zero tariff charges users only for the first minute of any calls they make of up to 15-minute’s duration within the Beeline network.

Calls across networks on the plan are charged at $0.06 per minute, above the new minimum, but the company’s Boom plan allows calls within and across networks to be charged at $0.05 per minute, which Mobitel maintains gives the company an unfair advantage in a bid to erode the market share of more-established service providers. However, Beeline ended the promotion for new users and said most existing users have already switched to the newer Super Zero tariff.

Operators and the government previously had a long-standing agreement that calls across networks would cost $0.0595 per minute, including a $0.0465 per minute charge to the owner of the network and taxes and transfer fees. However, an argument arose over whether that agreement was binding.

Beeline is currently defending itself against legal action by Mobitel, which in addition to the price-dumping claims, is accusing the provider of using Mobitel’s prefixes to disguise calls made across networks.

Mark Hanna, chief financial officer at Royal Group, which owns Mobitel after buying out its joint-venture partner last month, was travelling and could not be reached for comment.

However, the company is understood to be largely in favour of the minimum tariff, with sources in the sector claiming that the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications’ intervention followed intensive lobbying by Mobitel to help it preserve market share and protect its sizable investment in the telecoms sector.

Sources within Mobitel, Hello and Metfone say new competitors have been unfairly benefiting from the infrastructure investments made by older operators, and have been able to offer cheaper services due to lower maintenance fees and equipment costs. source: the phnom penh post

Telecoms meeting to warn on regulation

2009-12-08T19:22:00.000-08:00

CAMBODIA’S Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications will be warned Friday at a regional telecoms meeting of the potential for regulatory uncertainty to damage the commercial value of companies in the telecommunications sector, according to copy of one of the presentations.

The lecture by information and communications technology (ICT) consultant Scott Minehane is to be given at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) regional conference concluding Saturday in Nha Trang, Vietnam.

According to a copy of his lecture on the ITU Web site, Minehane will warn that regulatory management is responsible for between 40 and 50 percent of the impact on the commercial value of operators in the sector. In comparison, optimising prices can impact on just 22 to 27 percent of an operator’s value, and reductions in capital expenditure between 15 and 20 percent, according to a study by business consultancy McKinsey and Company cited by Minehane.

“Government has a unique potential for value creation … or destruction”, his statement says. “Inconsistent, unclear and uninformed policy and regulatory decisions are highly destructive for existing operators.”

The ministry’s Director General Mao Chakrya is to chair the discussion presented by Minehane. Titled “Enabling Environment: Policy, Regulatory and Financial Framework”, Minehane will be joined by other experts to help define the role of governments in developing ICT industries.

The conference was organised to develop a plan to improve ICT connectivity in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Other topics to be discussed include ICT in sustainable development, institutional strengthening and human capacity building, and public-private partnerships.

In a global benchmarking study of regulatory frameworks undertaken by Minehane for the ITU, operators said a lack of clarity concerning end goals and actions taken without a clear picture of broader commercial objectives resulted in “random, contradictory or self-defeating industry behaviour”. source: the phnom penh post

Edict on mobile sector to set minimum tariffs

2009-12-08T19:18:00.000-08:00

ALONG-AWAITED edict setting minimum tariffs in the mobile-phone sector was signed by the government Friday, telecoms Minister So Khun said Monday.

The prakas on tariffs, which was developed to end an ongoing price war that government officials – including Prime Minster Hun Sen – have said was destabilising the sector, was signed by So Khun and Keat Chhon, his equivalent at the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

“We offered free-market principles, but operators kept having conflicts with one another, so the government needs to have a hand in it,” So Khun said. The government will suspend the licence of any operators that violate the minimum tariff set by the edict, he added.

So Khun declined to give details of the prakas or when it will take effect, but said it will be unveiled Wednesday afternoon. Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Secretary of State Sarak Khan said the minimum would apply to calls within and across networks.

It was set after the government analysed costs and profit information submitted by the nine mobile-phone operators in the Kingdom. Sarak Khan said the ministries followed international practice based on a formula from the International Telecommunication Union, but did not provide further details.

Simon Perkins, CEO of Hello, said he supported the initiative “to bring some structure to the telecom tarrifs, in the absence of the usual competition guidelines and rules that exist in a lot of markets”.

He said he expected the edict would be the first step in a long process to bring stability to the sector.

“We need to work with [the ministry] on further projects to review the whole regulation framework, licensing, tariffs, interconnect, infrastructure sharing … [these] are just a few of the priorities to work on,” Perkins said.

The prakas is the second of two developed to bring structure to the sector after a dispute between market leader Mobitel and new entrant Beeline earlier this year that involved accusations of call-blocking and price-dumping. The first edict, which regulated interconnectivity agreements, was passed on October 5. source: the phnom penh post

Royal Group completes full buyout of Mobitel

2009-11-29T23:50:00.000-08:00

THE Royal Group has completed the purchase of its joint-venture partners' 61.5 percent stake in mobile-phone company Mobitel, also known as CamGSM, through what advisers on the deal say is Cambodia’s largest-ever corporate acquisition and debt-leveraged buyout.

The purchase of Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular SA’s 58.4 percent stake in Cambodia’s leading mobile- service provider by users and an additional 3.1 percent owned by small shareholders was announced by the Nasdaq-listed global telecoms operator late Thursday.

The deal, which gives the Royal Group 100 percent control of Mobitel, the operator of the Cellcard network, was financed through a US$421 million senior debt facility arranged by Standard Bank Plc and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, according to Cambodia-based investment firm Cambodia Capital.

The firm, which is an affiliate of Indochina-focused financial services provider Lotus Capital, acted as financial adviser to Royal Group on the acquisition and associated financing.

The loan covers the $346 million cash purchase of the Millicom stake and refinances debt held by Mobitel, including a $100 million syndicated loan arranged by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in July 2008.

The loan, which was to upgrade and expand the company’s cellular network, had not been fully drawn.

Royal Group Chief Financial Officer Mark Hanna declined to comment on the deal Thursday.

Andrew Ranken, a founding partner in Cambodia Capital, described the deal as a landmark transaction for Cambodia.

“The acquisition and associated financing are the largest ever in Cambodia and demonstrate that Cambodia is now on the radar for international investors,” he said.

“The financing sets an important benchmark for the market and should help to improve access to capital for quality Cambodian issuers like CamGSM.”

An international group of investors including Cambodian fund Leopard Capital invested in the facility, a source involved in the deal said.

Leopard Capital, founded in 2007 by Douglas Clayton, manages almost $31 million in committed capital from global investors, according to the fund’s Web site.

Breakthrough
Standard Bank’s head of Asia telecoms and media, Tom Fuller, said it was a breakthrough transaction for Cambodia.

“Successfully arranging this facility for Cambodia’s number one telecom operator is evidence of Standard Bank’s continued commitment to being a leading financial institution in the emerging markets,” he said.

According to data provider Thomson Reuters, only eight syndicated loans had previously been completed in Cambodia, including the IFC loan to Mobitel.

The deal also includes Millicom’s stake in Royal Telecam International Co and Cambodia Broadcasting Service Co, which operates television network CTN.

It values the telecommunications and television broadcasting assets at an enterprise value of $605 million, or 7.1 times estimated 2009 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, Millicom said in announcing it had reached a deal to sell the stake to Royal Group in August.

Sources in the industry have said the sale price, which was agreed amid heavy interest from rival operators, including Japan’s cash-rich NTT DoCoMo, was a good deal for Royal Group.

Millicom has partnered with the investment and development firm in Cambodia for 14 years but announced in May that it planned to divest its Southeast Asian assets to concentrate on emerging markets in Africa and Latin America.

Millicom has also sold its Sri Lankan operations to UAE-based telecommunications company Emirates Telecommunications Corp, or Etisalat, for $155 million and has agreed the sale of its Laotian operations to Russia’s JSC VimpelCom for $65 million.

ANZ and Royal Group are partners in ANZ Royal Bank in Cambodia, which was not involved in the syndicated loan. source: the phnom penh post

Govt calls for shared mobile towers

2009-11-23T00:25:00.000-08:00

MINISTER of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun called Thursday for Cambodia’s nine mobile-phone companies to share infrastructure, a measure that has already raised concerns within the private sector as to how exactly the requirement would be implemented following the future passage of a telecommunications law.

Speaking in Phnom Penh at a conference on the issue that included private-sector representatives, So Khun said the initiative would avoid duplication of infrastructure, thereby reducing the sector’s expenses and its potential impact on the Kingdom’s skyline.

“We do not want to see too many antennas dotted along roads in the future,” he said.

The government has given Tower Master Cambodia Co Ltd a 35-year licence to build shared mobile infrastructure across the country. The company is 80 percent owned by an unnamed Malaysian firm, with the remaining 20 percent taken by Ung Veasna, the president of the new firm.

“We hope that the participation and sharing of experiences in using these joint antennas will help boost growth of the economy and improve the country’s telecommunications service quality,” Ung Veasna said at Thursday’s meeting.

The first stage of the process would see the company invest US$20 million to build 100 joint antennas across the Kingdom.

In a bid to raise capacity from the current roughly 2.3 million mobile-phone users to 5.3 million, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPTC) plans to build a total of 4,500 antennas, according to documents presented Thursday.

How this plan will be achieved remains hugely controversial within the mobile-phone sector, given that some companies have operated in the Kingdom for years and spent tens of millions of dollars on infrastructure to gain a competitive advantage, whereas others have entered only recently.

A draft of a proposed telecoms law states in Article 50(b) that “a licensee shall share the facilities with other licensees”, a clause that has raised concern in some firms in the sector.

In its recommendations to the ministry in response to the draft, the private sector said at the end of September that it agreed that sharing infrastructure was beneficial in reducing costs and environmental impact, but that, within Cambodia, market forces had not been given sufficient time to work.

“Mandatory facilities sharing will reduce the incentive on operators to build such infrastructure,” said the recommendations, which were refined before submission to the ministry.

“This may result in less than the optimal number of towers being constructed such that when the operators commence infilling their networks to improve coverage and provide better service, they are unable to do so as all tower capacity has been filled.”

The nine-page feedback document adds: “This will result in a delay in improvements to the network while additional towers are built.”

Mobitel, the country’s first mobile-phone operator and largest by market share, this year announced a $350 million three-year rural expansion programme after the signing of a $100 million loan secured through the International Finance Corporation.

Viettel, the Vietnamese military-run operator under the brand name Metphone, confirmed similarly ambitious plans to extend its infrastructure at the end of last month.

Managing Director Nguyen Duy Tho said the firm would activate an additional 3,000 base receiver stations by the end of this month as it targets coverage of nearly 95 percent of Cambodia’s population.

Neither Mobitel nor Viettel were available for comment on the new MPTC recommendations Thursday.

Smart Mobile supported the initiative in principal, said spokesman Rattana Um, adding that the Cyprus-based firm was awaiting further direction from the ministry, but expressing some concern about how infrastructure-sharing would be implemented in practice. Source: The Phnom Penh Post

Govt ready to enforce mobile-phone tariffs

2009-11-12T17:46:00.000-08:00

TELECOMS Minister So Khun said the government would enforce minimum tariffs in the mobile phone sector if operators could not come to an agreement on prices.

Contradicting comments by Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications Director Mao Chakrya in recent weeks that minimum tariffs would only be set with the full agreement of the private sector, the minister said Tuesday that the government would put aside its commitment to free-market principles in the sector to prevent price-dumping by new entrants from undermining existing investments.

“We will forget the free market for a while. We will fix the price,” he said. “We provide the right for them [to operate in a free market], but they don’t want to use this right; they want to fight each other, so the government needs to intervene.”

The government had called for operators to submit information regarding the costs of making calls on their networks by October 15 in order to draft a prakas, or edict, on tariffs in the sector. The deadline was extended to October 30 after only four operators complied by the initial deadline.

So Khun said the ministry was analysing the information and would set a minimum tariff if operators failed to agree among themselves.

The government will withdraw licences from any companies that refuse to comply with the tariff, he said.

A long-term watcher of the Cambodian telecoms market who declined to be named said the move was an attempt to “treat the symptoms rather than fix the problems” that had resulted from a muddled approach to regulation.

The proliferation of mobile-service providers in the past few years has undermined the business interests of firms that invested in building up telecoms infrastructure in Cambodia, he said.

Huge investments
Market leader Mobitel had invested somewhere in the vicinity of US$700 million in building a “world class” mobile-phone network, he said.

Guaranteed access through interconnect agreements meant new entrants could “cherry pick” customers in the more lucrative urban areas through discounted pricing with no need to develop infrastructure in unprofitable areas, putting Mobitel’s investment at risk.

“In Cambodia there have been many new entrants, and during my last visit many people were worried that the new entrants will undermine the businesses of companies that have served the country well and put a lot of money into infrastructure investment,” he said by email.

Mark Hanna, chief financial operator at Royal Group, which holds a minority stake in Mobitel, declined to comment. Mobitel CEO Jeff Noble and CEO Kay Lot have a long-standing policy of not commenting on regulatory issues.

Hello CEO Simon Perkins said price regulation was desirable “in the case of Cambodia's current situation” to allow operators to further invest in infrastructure to improve coverage and quality, which he said was “a particular weakness” with some of the new entrants.

“I have seen tariff regulation before, specifically in Vietnam, where the government wanted to encourage operators to improve coverage across the nation, rather than just ‘cherry-picking’ the heavily populated areas,” he said.

Operators can still compete with marketing offers and promotions, he said, “provided these fall within certain guidelines”, as well as on products and services, such as Hello’s BlackBerry offering.

Thomas Hundt, CEO at newcomer Smart Mobile, did not return a request for comment. Gael Campan, general director at Beeline, which is currently defending a lawsuit by Mobitel over alleged price-dumping, was also unavailable. source: the phnom penh post

Mobitel to offer BlackBerry service

2009-11-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

MOBITEL said on Tuesday that it will launch BlackBerry service, becoming the second mobile-phone provider in the Kingdom to the offer the Research in Motion (RIM) handsets.

The country’s largest provider by users said it would begin selling the Storm and Bold handsets on three service plans, although the exact pricing and launch date were not confirmed.

Sales staffers at a Mobitel-branded store on Sothearos Boulevard were not able to say Monday when the firm’s BlackBerries would go on sale, adding that no pricing framework had been decided.

Mobitel said at the beginning of April that it was preparing to offer BlackBerries and had already entered agreements with RIM.

“Mobile connectivity is becoming more and more important to mobile users in Cambodia, and we’re very pleased to be working with RIM,” Mobitel CEO Jeffrey Noble said in Tuesday’s announcement.

Mobitel follows Hello of Malaysia in selling RIM smartphones in Cambodia following the Kuala Lumpur-based firm’s late-April launch of Pearl 8120 and Curve 8320 handsets.

Hello then launched the 3G Bold in July, announcing in September it would cease offering 2G Blackberries.

On October 26, Hello dropped the entry price of its BlackBerries from US$68 per month to $41 per month, and allowed existing BlackBerry owners to sign up to a Hello plan without having to purchase a handset.

Gary Foo, Hello’s brand manager, said that Hello was considering selling prepaid BlackBerries given that 99 percent of Cambodian mobile phone users are not contracted on pricing plans.

“We have seen huge success from our Axiata sibling XL in Indonesia,” he said. “Currently there is no operator in the world that has offered BlackBerry prepaid except XL, our subsidiary in Indonesia, and [it is] hugely successful there.”

RIM increased its share of the worldwide mobile-phone market in the third quarter, according to research published by IDC last week.

RIM raised its share of the smartphone market to 19 percent during the July-to-September quarter from 14.6 percent a year earlier, it said, leaving it in second position in terms of unit sales behind Finland’s Nokia. Overall, worldwide smartphone sales rose 4.2 percent to 43.3 million in the third quarter from a year earlier, IDC’s report said. source: the phnom penh post

Teliasonera blames low tariffs

2009-11-05T01:29:00.000-08:00

THE parent company of Cambodian mobile phone operator Star-Cell on Wednesday attributed a 56 percent second-quarter drop in subscribers to stepped up competition as a result of the “next-to-zero pricing” policy of a new entrant from Vietnam.

Stockholm-based Teliasonera AB, which owns the company through its local subsidiary Applifone, highlighted the fall in total users from 150,000 in the first quarter to just 66,000 in the second in its third-quarter financial results published last week.

The company had 141,000 subscribers at the end of the third quarter, the company’s financial results showed.

Jen Borja Bornas, Applifone’s media manager in Cambodia, declined to comment Thursday on revenues and user numbers, but a Stockholm-based spokesperson said by email Wednesday that the blip was temporary.

“The main reason for the drop in Q2 was the entering of new players in the market, [especially] a Vietnamese player that had a next-to-zero pricing initially that created a temporary churn for us,” Ola Kallemur said. “Apparently most of the customers returned to us after a period.”

Kallemur did not mention Viettel by name, but the Vietnamese military owned firm launched its Metfone brand in February 2009 with a campaign of free SIM-card giveaways to build market share.

Viettel Managing Director Nguyen Duy Tho told the Post last month that the promotion was discontinued in May “due to its ineffectiveness”.

Kallemur said the firm had not yet made a “real effort” to gain market share in Cambodia, instead focusing on improving network quality. source: the phnom penh post

Mobile sector booming

2009-11-05T01:13:00.000-08:00

CAMBODIA’S mobile-phone sector will grow 62 percent this year, according to a new report by London-based Business Monitor International (BMI), more than the 42.5 percent last year. Announcing the new study Tuesday, BMI said that increased competition in the sector would drive the Kingdom towards 6.23 million users this year. However, it was not clear whether the study counted SIM cards or active users, an important distinction given the large number of users in Cambodia who swap among operators to get the best tariffs. source: the phnom penh post

Mfone signs up to WING

2009-10-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

MOBILE-phone payment service provider WING signed a cooperation agreement with mobile-phone operator Mfone Wednesday allowing its users to make transactions across the company’s network.

Mfone, which is operated by Thai-owned Camshin, is the fourth operator to sign up with WING. The system lets Mfone mobile users buy airtime using their WING account, and transfer money to other account holders. Non-account holders can also transfer money by sending a code to a recipient who can then pick up cash at one of 500 WING Cash Xpress outlets in 19 provinces across the Kingdom. WING is a wholly owned subsidiary of ANZ Banking Group

Mobitel-Beeline case goes to next stage as PM warns telcos

2009-10-28T01:24:00.000-07:00

LEGAL experts have begun evaluating evidence in Mobitel’s legal action against mobile competitor Beeline, a deputy prosecutor said Tuesday, taking the case to the next stage as Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a warning to the sector on call-blocking and price-dumping.

Phnom Penh Municipal Court Deputy Prosecutor Sok Roeun said that no date had yet been set for the case filed in early August alleging price-dumping and illegal use of Mobitel’s prefixes, but that both sides had introduced their lawyers to the court.

The court had appointed experts to evaluate evidence submitted by the rival parties, he added. “When the experts have uncovered the facts, the hearing will follow.”

This is the first update the court has given on the case since it was first reported in September.

In a government order dated October 21 and published in local newspapers, the prime minister warned that operators risked their licences’ being suspended or revoked if found guilty of blocking cross-network calls as the dispute continued to defy resolution.

The order did not identify any companies by name, but Russian-owned Beeline has long accused Mobitel of blocking calls from its network.

Mobitel, which operates the Cellcard brand, has denied the charge, saying that it had stalled working on an interconnection interface in retaliation for what it has labelled predatory pricing by the new entrant.

Other operators have also levelled the allegation against the firm, lodging complaints with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, which had not ruled definitively on the issue. Mobitel launched court proceedings against Beeline, which is owned by Vimpelcom, in August.

Beeline’s commercial director, Benoit Janin, refused to comment Tuesday on the court case or on whether it still had interconnectivity issues with Mobitel. However, he said Hun Sen’s order to operators to cease blocking calls across networks left little room for interpretation.

“I think it’s quite clear" that the practice would no longer be tolerated, he said.

Beeline General Director Gael Campan was in Russia and could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Mobitel Chief Operating Officer Kay Lot declined to comment Tuesday on the issue.

Hun Sen’s order is the third major government intervention in the last month concerning pricing and interconnection issues in the sector. It follows an inter-ministerial circular on measures to prevent unfair competition in the telecommunications sector signed by Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon and Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun on September 29 that warned operators to desist from any activities that destabilised the sector.

The document singled out below-cost calls across networks and free calling offers within networks, saying the practice undermined stability in the sector and robbed the government of tax revenues.

The telecoms ministry also issued a prakas, or edict, on interconnectivity on October 5, setting out a framework for the technical process that allows calls to be made across networks.

The ministry is also now working on a second prakas that is expected to set a minimum tariff for calls in the sector, based on costs submitted by mobile operators.

Ministry Secretary of State Sarak Khan said Tuesday that operators have been ordered to submit details of their operating costs and profits by next Friday after only four out of the nine submitted the requested information at a meeting last Friday.

These were Hello, Mobitel, Mfone and qb, according to a manager who attended the meeting. Sarak Khan said only “one or two” had still not complied with the request, though he declined to name them.

Ministry Director General Mao Chakrya told the Post earlier this month that any minimum price tariff would need to be set in agreement with the operators, in accordance with the government’s free market approach to the sector.

However, Hello Chief Executive Officer Simon Perkins said Tuesday that last Friday’s meeting had made it clear that the ministry was preparing to set minimum tariffs independently, which he said Hello supported.

“We’ve said quite publicly that we are not happy with calls below cost. We think that is predatory pricing and an unfair business practice,” he said. Source: the phnom penh post

Standing out from the telco crowd

2009-10-27T01:39:00.000-07:00

POP stars don’t generally enjoy a reputation for rising early, but at 9am on Friday morning, a group of Cambodian chart toppers – including Meas Sok Sophea, Preap Sovath and Keo Vasna – sat in the VIP Lounge of Smart Mobile’s flagship Monivong Boulevard showroom, wide awake and ready for the cameras.

Within the hour they were delivering speeches on the importance of positive role models in keeping the Kingdom’s young people away from drugs.

The occasion was a press conference announcing a series of free, anti-drugs themed concerts in Phnom Penh over the three days of the coming Water Festival, sponsored by Smart Mobile.

Speaking at the event, the firm’s CEO, Thomas Hundt, said the concerts reflected a “commitment to being a company with a highly positive attentiveness to, and contribution to, Cambodian society”.

Moments later, Hundt added that “Smart Mobile is looking forward to welcoming visitors to Phnom Penh [for the Water Festival], especially the huge crowd of youth Smart Mobile serves in the provinces”.

The promise of this crowd – not only the teenage consumers entering the mobile market, but every one of the increasingly well-employed, well-educated participants in the new, “young”, up-and-coming Cambodia – has already drawn nine mobile-phone companies into fierce competition over what remains a narrow market.

This saturation has spurred a marketing frenzy among operators.

Among the top 10 advertisers in print media for the first eight months of the year, seven were mobile-phone companies, according to data from Indochina Research. In 2008, mobile-service providers occupied the top four positions, and up to the end of August this year, the sector claimed six of the top 10 positions in terms of spending on television advertising.

Moscow-based Beeline has also co-opted tuk-tuk drivers in its brand development by paying drivers to repaint their vehicles in its familiar yellow and black stripes. The firm’s managing director, Gael Campan, was not available for comment on its marketing strategy.

And although Cambodian media advertising costs only a fraction of that in the developed world, Hello’s brand manager, Gary Foo, said it’s not always good value for money.

“Given the quality of services provided, media [advertising] is expensive,” he said.

Part of the high cost of advertising comes from the size of the audience reached by any given ad in a country where the spread of mobile phones has far outpaced the spread of television, newspapers and certainly the Internet. But another part is the raw size of the existing mobile-phone market itself.

Foo estimated that out of a total population of 14 million, the size of the mobile-phone market was 5 million.
“Split evenly, that’s less than 500,000 subscribers” per operator, Foo said. “This is one of, if not the most, competitive, market in the world.”

Recent months have seen telcos going head to head in an aggressive pricing war. But as the tariff bar edges closer to the zero-cents-per-minute mark (Beeline’s “Super Zero” plan offers in-network calls free for the second to 15th minute), mobile firms have begun looking for a new edge by investing heavily in brand development.

Through TV spots, socially conscious programme sponsorship and new showrooms, each firm is hoping to make its brand synonymous with a new Cambodian lifestyle ideal.

Discussing the kinds of people who appear in Smart Mobile’s most recent TV spot, Chief Marketing Officer Kirill Mankovsky said: “They are young, passionate, good workers. They have friends, just married, good jobs: These are future and current Cambodians who have achieved something.”

Smart Mobile also runs a road safety “drive smart, drive safe” campaign (which includes road-safety seminars with the same name at around a dozen universities), and has sponsored an Angkor temple cleanup in association with the Royal University of Law and Economics.

But the face of Smart Mobile that far more of its customers see is the main showroom in Phnom Penh: a large, brightly lit consumer space over two floors. On the upper mezzanine, youngsters crowd around free Internet consoles and a row of Playstation 2s hooked up to big-screen TVs, while a T&C coffee shop outlet aims at a slightly older crowd.

Mobitel appears to be building a series of branded stores on Sihanouk Boulevard in the capital as it finishes building a third space on the same strip.

Kay Lot, Mobitel’s chief operating officer, said he was not authorised to comment on the company’s marketing strategy in the absence of CEO Jeffrey Noble, who was out of the country.

Physical disconnect
But physical presence has not always connected with consumers.

Mankovsky admitted that at first “many Cambodians considered the store too upscale. They were afraid they couldn’t afford our services, but our prices are quite competitive…. At the beginning, there were not so many people, but eventually it became really crowded, with so many more customers.”

Hello, which has existed in its current brand form for two years and is operated by Malaysia’s Axiata, has pursued a more fundamentals-based form of lifestyle marketing. Though the company is similar to Smart in its social engagement and event sponsorship – street-football tournaments, Siem Reap flood relief, free concert series – Hello has attempted to distinguish itself from the rest of the market in technology and pricing.

In particular, Hello is the only mobile operator in Cambodia to support Research in Motion’s Blackberry services – including push email – and voice SMS. Hello also offers a song-sharing app called music2gether and real-time chat application, Foo says.

He added that although many Cambodians still use their mobiles for basic calling and texting, “a lot of people are making a quantum leap into the mobile phone market”.

Hello is attempting to balance its upper-market vanguard position with an old-fashioned appeal to convenience and value. Foo said that on the whole, “people here are very cost-conscious”, one symptom of which is a tendency to switch out SIM cards or borrow phones in order to get the best rates.

Hello’s bid to counter this effect is the “Hello Laor” plan, which offers a flat US$0.07-per-minute rate for all calls, within or across network, a tariff it hopes is clearer than those of its competitors.

And that’s part of the problem, as Smart has found out.

After the recent launch of Smart’s “Wow” tariff, Thai-based Mfone followed this month with a tariff and accompanying advertising blitz using the same “Wow” moniker.

In Cambodia’s mobile market, branding out from the crowd is not always straightforward. Source: the phnom penh post