As I know some internet shop owners in Phnom penh: they say, it headache after the customers go back after renting a internet hours setting, files or programs that download from internet left in the screen after they use so they need to delete all files in the screen.
Here, I would introduce one program that help BootFrozen your Pc
Note: Before you set this program you should learn about it:
Monday, April 20, 2009
Good program for internet shop owners
As I know some internet shop owners in Phnom penh: they say, it headache after the customers go back after renting a internet hours setting, files or programs that download from internet left in the screen after they use so they need to delete all files in the screen.
Here, I would introduce one program that help BootFrozen your Pc
Note: Before you set this program you should learn about it:
Here, I would introduce one program that help BootFrozen your Pc
Note: Before you set this program you should learn about it:
( Khmer movie ) Tirk Phnek neang korr Pt. 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzR9QzDvAs0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CuzCUsBR4k&feature=related
Cambodian-Americans call for speed up in the trial of former KR leaders
19 April 2009
By Khim Sarang
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer
Tung Yap, President of the Cambodian-Americans for Human Rights in Democracy (CAHRAD) organization, said that, besides the commemorations for the victims, his organization also appeals to the KR Tribunal to speed up the trial process for the former KR leaders, and to provide justice.
Tung Yap said: “Today, we are all gathering to light candles to commemorate all our compatriots who died during the Pol Pot genocidal regime. We pray that the spirits of these victims will push the KR Tribunal to speed up the trials prior to the death of the KR leaders, and that justice will be provided.”
"...we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want": Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan's China comments prompt backlash
Sun Apr 19, 2009
AP
Chan told a business forum in the southern Chinese province of Hainan that a free society may not be beneficial for China 's authoritarian mainland.
"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said Saturday. "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."
He went on to say that freedoms in Hong Kong and Taiwan made those societies "chaotic."
Chan's comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business leaders, but did not sit well with lawmakers in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
"He's insulted the Chinese people. Chinese people aren't pets," Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Leung Kwok-hung told The Associated Press. "Chinese society needs a democratic system to protect human rights and rule of law."
Another lawmaker, Albert Ho, called the comments "racist," adding: "People around the world are running their own countries. Why can't Chinese do the same?"
Former British colony Hong Kong enjoys Western-style civil liberties and some democratic elections under Chinese rule. Half of its 60-member legislature is elected, with the other half picked by special interest groups. But Hong Kong's leader is chosen by a panel stacked with Beijing loyalists.
In democratically self-ruled Taiwan, which split from mainland China during a civil war in 1949, legislator Huang Wei-che said Chan himself "has enjoyed freedom and democracy and has reaped the economic benefits of capitalism. But he has yet to grasp the true meaning of freedom and democracy."
Chan's comments were reported by news outlets in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but were ignored by the mainland Chinese press.
Although Chan was a fierce critic of the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989, which killed at least hundreds, he has not publicly criticized China's government in recent years and is immensely popular on the mainland.
He performed during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and took part in the Olympic torch relay .
Chan also is vice chairman of the China Film Association, a key industry group.
___
Associated Press writer Annie Huang in Taipei contributed to this report.
Cambodian-Americans call for speed up in the trial of former KR leaders
19 April 2009
By Khim Sarang
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer
Tung Yap, President of the Cambodian-Americans for Human Rights in Democracy (CAHRAD) organization, said that, besides the commemorations for the victims, his organization also appeals to the KR Tribunal to speed up the trial process for the former KR leaders, and to provide justice.
Tung Yap said: “Today, we are all gathering to light candles to commemorate all our compatriots who died during the Pol Pot genocidal regime. We pray that the spirits of these victims will push the KR Tribunal to speed up the trials prior to the death of the KR leaders, and that justice will be provided.”
"...we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want": Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan's China comments prompt backlash
Sun Apr 19, 2009
AP
Chan told a business forum in the southern Chinese province of Hainan that a free society may not be beneficial for China 's authoritarian mainland.
"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said Saturday. "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."
He went on to say that freedoms in Hong Kong and Taiwan made those societies "chaotic."
Chan's comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business leaders, but did not sit well with lawmakers in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
"He's insulted the Chinese people. Chinese people aren't pets," Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Leung Kwok-hung told The Associated Press. "Chinese society needs a democratic system to protect human rights and rule of law."
Another lawmaker, Albert Ho, called the comments "racist," adding: "People around the world are running their own countries. Why can't Chinese do the same?"
Former British colony Hong Kong enjoys Western-style civil liberties and some democratic elections under Chinese rule. Half of its 60-member legislature is elected, with the other half picked by special interest groups. But Hong Kong's leader is chosen by a panel stacked with Beijing loyalists.
In democratically self-ruled Taiwan, which split from mainland China during a civil war in 1949, legislator Huang Wei-che said Chan himself "has enjoyed freedom and democracy and has reaped the economic benefits of capitalism. But he has yet to grasp the true meaning of freedom and democracy."
Chan's comments were reported by news outlets in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but were ignored by the mainland Chinese press.
Although Chan was a fierce critic of the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989, which killed at least hundreds, he has not publicly criticized China's government in recent years and is immensely popular on the mainland.
He performed during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and took part in the Olympic torch relay .
Chan also is vice chairman of the China Film Association, a key industry group.
___
Associated Press writer Annie Huang in Taipei contributed to this report.
KRouge prison chief killed and tortured: witness
20 April 2009
AFP
Chan Veoun, 56, said he saw the jailer, known as Duch, kill his uncle while he himself was collecting food at the prison camp, M-13, in the early 1970s.
“He was my uncle. He was shot by Duch. He killed him in front of my eyes,” Chan Veoun said, weeping. He did not give a reason for the slaying.
Duch—whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav—charged in response that the testimony was fabricated.
Last month Duch apologised at the start of his trial, accepting blame for overseeing the extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the regime’s main prison, Tuol Sleng.
He has maintained however that he never personally executed anyone and has only admitted to abusing two people.
Chan Veoun told the court Duch regularly beat prisoners and once stripped a woman to her waist to burn her breasts with a torch soaked in gasoline.
Once, he added, prisoners kept shackled in pits were once left to drown in rainy season floods.
Duch denied his accounts, saying he recognised Chan Veoun but the witness had never worked under him.
“This is a complete fabrication—probably of what he heard and (he) added something on top,” Duch told the court.
“About the crimes committed at (M-13) I cannot forget it. It is a serious matter that affects me psychologically.”
The court has been hearing evidence about M-13, which Duch ran during the 1971 to 1975 Khmer Rouge insurgency against then then US-backed government, to better understand Tuol Sleng’s organising structure.
The Khmer Rouge were in power in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, when Duch is accused of supervising Tuol Sleng prison and sending thousands of people to their deaths in the so-called “Killing Fields.”
The former mathematics teacher has denied assertions by prosecutors that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge’s iron-fisted rule.
He faces life in jail at the court, which does not have the power to impose the death penalty.
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998, and many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people.
KRouge prison chief killed and tortured: witness
20 April 2009
AFP
Chan Veoun, 56, said he saw the jailer, known as Duch, kill his uncle while he himself was collecting food at the prison camp, M-13, in the early 1970s.
“He was my uncle. He was shot by Duch. He killed him in front of my eyes,” Chan Veoun said, weeping. He did not give a reason for the slaying.
Duch—whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav—charged in response that the testimony was fabricated.
Last month Duch apologised at the start of his trial, accepting blame for overseeing the extermination of 15,000 people who passed through the regime’s main prison, Tuol Sleng.
He has maintained however that he never personally executed anyone and has only admitted to abusing two people.
Chan Veoun told the court Duch regularly beat prisoners and once stripped a woman to her waist to burn her breasts with a torch soaked in gasoline.
Once, he added, prisoners kept shackled in pits were once left to drown in rainy season floods.
Duch denied his accounts, saying he recognised Chan Veoun but the witness had never worked under him.
“This is a complete fabrication—probably of what he heard and (he) added something on top,” Duch told the court.
“About the crimes committed at (M-13) I cannot forget it. It is a serious matter that affects me psychologically.”
The court has been hearing evidence about M-13, which Duch ran during the 1971 to 1975 Khmer Rouge insurgency against then then US-backed government, to better understand Tuol Sleng’s organising structure.
The Khmer Rouge were in power in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, when Duch is accused of supervising Tuol Sleng prison and sending thousands of people to their deaths in the so-called “Killing Fields.”
The former mathematics teacher has denied assertions by prosecutors that he played a central role in the Khmer Rouge’s iron-fisted rule.
He faces life in jail at the court, which does not have the power to impose the death penalty.
Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998, and many believe the UN-sponsored tribunal is the last chance to find justice for victims of the regime, which killed up to two million people.
Pol Pot's shoes up for sale [-Nhem En tries to cash in on Khmer tragedy?]
Nhem EnAFP
PHNOM PENH - A PHOTOGRAPHER for the Khmer Rouge said on Monday he is putting leader Pol Pot's sandals up for auction along with a pair of cameras used to picture life under his brutal regime.
Nhem En, who photographed inmates at the notorious S-21 torture centre and also snapped pictures at official ceremonies for the Cambodian regime, told AFP bidding for the items would open at US$500,000 (S$750,000)
'Now I offer for auction a pair of Pol Pot's sandals and my two cameras that I used to shoot Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge leaders, as well as those who died and were victimised at S-21,' Nhem En said.
The sandals belonging to Pol Pot, who died in 1998, were made of car tyre, while the two cameras were manufactured in Germany and Japan, he added.
Nhem En, now a deputy governor of northwest Anlong Veng district, said he hoped to use the money to construct a museum to showcase photographs and items from the Khmer Rouge period, including Pol Pot's old toilet.
'I call for an auction of the items because I need the money to build a big museum in Anlong Veng,' he said.
Up to two million people died of starvation, execution, overwork or torture as the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, dismantled society in a bid to forge a communist utopia.
The former chief of S-21 prison, Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Duch - is currently on trial for crimes committed during the regime. Cambodia's UN-backed court also plans to try four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Pol Pot's shoes up for sale [-Nhem En tries to cash in on Khmer tragedy?]
Nhem EnAFP
PHNOM PENH - A PHOTOGRAPHER for the Khmer Rouge said on Monday he is putting leader Pol Pot's sandals up for auction along with a pair of cameras used to picture life under his brutal regime.
Nhem En, who photographed inmates at the notorious S-21 torture centre and also snapped pictures at official ceremonies for the Cambodian regime, told AFP bidding for the items would open at US$500,000 (S$750,000)
'Now I offer for auction a pair of Pol Pot's sandals and my two cameras that I used to shoot Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge leaders, as well as those who died and were victimised at S-21,' Nhem En said.
The sandals belonging to Pol Pot, who died in 1998, were made of car tyre, while the two cameras were manufactured in Germany and Japan, he added.
Nhem En, now a deputy governor of northwest Anlong Veng district, said he hoped to use the money to construct a museum to showcase photographs and items from the Khmer Rouge period, including Pol Pot's old toilet.
'I call for an auction of the items because I need the money to build a big museum in Anlong Veng,' he said.
Up to two million people died of starvation, execution, overwork or torture as the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, dismantled society in a bid to forge a communist utopia.
The former chief of S-21 prison, Kaing Guek Eav - better known as Duch - is currently on trial for crimes committed during the regime. Cambodia's UN-backed court also plans to try four other senior Khmer Rouge leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
KR victims in the US let their voice heard
Houng Poeuv, center, and Nin Poeuv, right, survivors of Khmer Rouge atrocities in Cambodia, join other activists in a call for President Obama's attention in saving victims of genocide in Darfur at a rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington, Sunday, April 19, 2009. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)KR victims in the US let their voice heard
Houng Poeuv, center, and Nin Poeuv, right, survivors of Khmer Rouge atrocities in Cambodia, join other activists in a call for President Obama's attention in saving victims of genocide in Darfur at a rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House in Washington, Sunday, April 19, 2009. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)Human Rigts group helps Tim Skahorn seek refugee status in Thailand
18 April 2009
By Mondulkeo
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer
On 18 April, Ang Chanrith, the executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Organization (KKHRO), claimed that his group is legally providing help so that Ven. Tim Sokhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den North pagoda, receives his temporary refugee status in Thailand.
Ang Chanrith said: “We who are living in Cambodia, we will not stop it, i.e. we continue to push so that he (Tim Sakhorn) receives the refugee status by the UNHCR in Bangkok. We are working with other human rights organizations, such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Cambodia, and we are also working with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to have them help push this issue with the UNHCR in Bangkok so that he (Tom Sakhorn) can receive the refugee status.”
Following his one-year jailing in Vietnam, on 04 April 2009, the Viet authority allowed Ven. Tim Sakhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den North pagoda, to return to Cambodia to commemorate for his departed mother. However, the Viet authority set 17 April 2009 as his return date to Vietnam.
After he arrived in Cambodia, this former monk was re-ordained again, and he fled Cambodia to seek refugee status in Thailand.
Khieu Sopheak, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, said that Ven. Tim Sakhorn has all the necessary rights like all other Cambodian citizens, so there is no need for him to fear anything. Khieu Sopheak added: “He has other goal, so he takes this opportunity to ask for refugee status. This is not a new affair, there are several others who are like him.”
Trinh Ba Cam, Hanoi’s mouthpiece in Cambodia, said that he does not pay attention to this issue. He added that Mr. Tim Sakhorn is merely a simple citizen. Trinh Ba Cam said: “We are not preventing him from going anywhere, he asked for the legal authorization, then it is legal, but when he fled, that is illegal.”
Ven. Tim Sakhorn fled to Thailand on 11 April because he fears for his personal safety. He is currently asking for refugee status from the UNHCR in Thailand
Human Rigts group helps Tim Skahorn seek refugee status in Thailand
18 April 2009
By Mondulkeo
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer
On 18 April, Ang Chanrith, the executive director of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Human Rights Organization (KKHRO), claimed that his group is legally providing help so that Ven. Tim Sokhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den North pagoda, receives his temporary refugee status in Thailand.
Ang Chanrith said: “We who are living in Cambodia, we will not stop it, i.e. we continue to push so that he (Tim Sakhorn) receives the refugee status by the UNHCR in Bangkok. We are working with other human rights organizations, such as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Cambodia, and we are also working with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to have them help push this issue with the UNHCR in Bangkok so that he (Tom Sakhorn) can receive the refugee status.”
Following his one-year jailing in Vietnam, on 04 April 2009, the Viet authority allowed Ven. Tim Sakhorn, the former abbot of the Phnom Den North pagoda, to return to Cambodia to commemorate for his departed mother. However, the Viet authority set 17 April 2009 as his return date to Vietnam.
After he arrived in Cambodia, this former monk was re-ordained again, and he fled Cambodia to seek refugee status in Thailand.
Khieu Sopheak, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, said that Ven. Tim Sakhorn has all the necessary rights like all other Cambodian citizens, so there is no need for him to fear anything. Khieu Sopheak added: “He has other goal, so he takes this opportunity to ask for refugee status. This is not a new affair, there are several others who are like him.”
Trinh Ba Cam, Hanoi’s mouthpiece in Cambodia, said that he does not pay attention to this issue. He added that Mr. Tim Sakhorn is merely a simple citizen. Trinh Ba Cam said: “We are not preventing him from going anywhere, he asked for the legal authorization, then it is legal, but when he fled, that is illegal.”
Ven. Tim Sakhorn fled to Thailand on 11 April because he fears for his personal safety. He is currently asking for refugee status from the UNHCR in Thailand
Telecoms market in Cambodia overcrowded
April 20, 2009
ABC Radio Australia
And yet it has nine mobile phone operators.
Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: Thomas Hundt is the CEO of Smart; Syed Azmeer is the chief marketing officer of Hello; Kay Lot, MobiTel's chief operating officer
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Last year the number of mobile phones in use worldwide passed the 3.3 billion mark. That means that more than half the world's population has a mobile phone, making it the fastest-spreading technology in human history. Cambodia is not what you would call a major player in global telecoms. Its population is relatively small and relatively poor - 15 million people of whom around one-third live below the poverty line. Many millions live just above that line.
And yet Cambodia has nine mobile phone companies, with two more still to launch. So Khun is the Minister for Posts and Telecommunications and has been in his job since 1992. Asked what he thinks is the most important change in telecoms in his time, he answered: Liberalisation - allowing private companies to enter the mobile telecoms market. The government created the chance, and the participants came. And they've kept coming - five mobile phone companies have launched in the last 15 months.
THOMAS HUNDT: Well doubtless the market is competitive.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Thomas Hundt is the CEO of Smart, the latest entrant.
I asked him why Smart has started up. He says one reason is that market penetration is low - 25 percent. In other words, just one person in four owns a mobile phone. In fact, Hundt believes the real penetration rate is probably far lower since many people have more than one SIM card.
HUNDT: There are a couple of factors that are supporting the market. First of all the population growth. Secondly we have here in Cambodia 24-25 percent penetration. So looking at other countries in Asia we have a long way to go to penetrate the entire market.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Cambodia's telecoms market is hyper-competitive, but if the competitors agree on anything, it is that the market cannot sustain so many players.
Syed Azmeer is the chief marketing officer of Hello, which has been here in various guises since 1992.
SYED AZMEER: Basically it is a war of attrition. People are giving away free minutes and free SIM cards and there comes a certain point where they can't do that any more. Some of the not-so-serious players - once they amass a certain number of subscribers - will be up for sale. That's classic in any telco scenario.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Evidence of this war of attrition is widespread, with huge billboards across Phnom Penh, and advertising campaigns in most media - and even plastered on the tuk-tuk taxis that ferry people around the capital.
Azmeer says Hello doubled its subscriber base to 700,000 last year through an aggressive marketing campaign. Good though that is, it means Hello has just a third the number of subscribers of the country's dominant player, MobiTel.
MobiTel claims 60 percent of the market, and says it grew by one-third last year.
And where MobiTel leads, the others have to follow. The low-hanging fruit has been taken in the relatively well-off cities and large towns, so the next stage is for telecoms companies to expand their operations in rural areas, where more than 80 percent of the population live.
But that requires substantial investment. Despite operating in financially-straitened times, MobiTel's parent company last month signed a loan for USD$100 million.
The money will be used to expand its coverage in rural areas, says MobiTel's chief operating officer Kay Lot.
KAY LOT: Well I think the urban growth is still there, but it won't last. There are only so many target markets that are still out there in the urban. So the longer-term strategy is to go out more into the rural areas.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: To that end, says Kay Lot, MobiTel is erecting hundreds of new base stations in the countryside each year. Its more established competitors are also focusing their efforts outside the cities as the push to capture subscribers moves away from urban Cambodia.
The dominant player, MobiTel, will doubtless continue to do well. And several of its competitors will certainly be around in two or three years time too. But the multi-million dollar question is which of the nine operators will by then have hung up on Cambodia's tough and overcrowded mobile telecoms market.
Telecoms market in Cambodia overcrowded
April 20, 2009
ABC Radio Australia
And yet it has nine mobile phone operators.
Presenter: Robert Carmichael
Speakers: Thomas Hundt is the CEO of Smart; Syed Azmeer is the chief marketing officer of Hello; Kay Lot, MobiTel's chief operating officer
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Last year the number of mobile phones in use worldwide passed the 3.3 billion mark. That means that more than half the world's population has a mobile phone, making it the fastest-spreading technology in human history. Cambodia is not what you would call a major player in global telecoms. Its population is relatively small and relatively poor - 15 million people of whom around one-third live below the poverty line. Many millions live just above that line.
And yet Cambodia has nine mobile phone companies, with two more still to launch. So Khun is the Minister for Posts and Telecommunications and has been in his job since 1992. Asked what he thinks is the most important change in telecoms in his time, he answered: Liberalisation - allowing private companies to enter the mobile telecoms market. The government created the chance, and the participants came. And they've kept coming - five mobile phone companies have launched in the last 15 months.
THOMAS HUNDT: Well doubtless the market is competitive.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Thomas Hundt is the CEO of Smart, the latest entrant.
I asked him why Smart has started up. He says one reason is that market penetration is low - 25 percent. In other words, just one person in four owns a mobile phone. In fact, Hundt believes the real penetration rate is probably far lower since many people have more than one SIM card.
HUNDT: There are a couple of factors that are supporting the market. First of all the population growth. Secondly we have here in Cambodia 24-25 percent penetration. So looking at other countries in Asia we have a long way to go to penetrate the entire market.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Cambodia's telecoms market is hyper-competitive, but if the competitors agree on anything, it is that the market cannot sustain so many players.
Syed Azmeer is the chief marketing officer of Hello, which has been here in various guises since 1992.
SYED AZMEER: Basically it is a war of attrition. People are giving away free minutes and free SIM cards and there comes a certain point where they can't do that any more. Some of the not-so-serious players - once they amass a certain number of subscribers - will be up for sale. That's classic in any telco scenario.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: Evidence of this war of attrition is widespread, with huge billboards across Phnom Penh, and advertising campaigns in most media - and even plastered on the tuk-tuk taxis that ferry people around the capital.
Azmeer says Hello doubled its subscriber base to 700,000 last year through an aggressive marketing campaign. Good though that is, it means Hello has just a third the number of subscribers of the country's dominant player, MobiTel.
MobiTel claims 60 percent of the market, and says it grew by one-third last year.
And where MobiTel leads, the others have to follow. The low-hanging fruit has been taken in the relatively well-off cities and large towns, so the next stage is for telecoms companies to expand their operations in rural areas, where more than 80 percent of the population live.
But that requires substantial investment. Despite operating in financially-straitened times, MobiTel's parent company last month signed a loan for USD$100 million.
The money will be used to expand its coverage in rural areas, says MobiTel's chief operating officer Kay Lot.
KAY LOT: Well I think the urban growth is still there, but it won't last. There are only so many target markets that are still out there in the urban. So the longer-term strategy is to go out more into the rural areas.
ROBERT CARMICHAEL: To that end, says Kay Lot, MobiTel is erecting hundreds of new base stations in the countryside each year. Its more established competitors are also focusing their efforts outside the cities as the push to capture subscribers moves away from urban Cambodia.
The dominant player, MobiTel, will doubtless continue to do well. And several of its competitors will certainly be around in two or three years time too. But the multi-million dollar question is which of the nine operators will by then have hung up on Cambodia's tough and overcrowded mobile telecoms market.
Mobile phone rivals fight for Cambodia
Cambodian mobile phone companies will extend their reach into rural areas. [ABC]Sunday, April 19, 2009
Robert Carmichael, Phnom Penh
ABC Radio Australia
Cambodia has just 15 million people and is one of the poorest countries in the region - and yet it has nine mobile phone operators.
Five have launched in the last 15 months, and two more are preparing to open.
More than half the world's population has a mobile phone - there are 3.3 billion of the instruments according to latest figures.
But in Cambodia, says Thomas Hundt - chief executive of Smart, the latest entrant - market penetration is low, at 25 percent.
In other words, no more than one Cambodian in four owns a mobile phone and that makes telecommunication phone companies very excited.
Liberalisation
So Khun, Minister for Posts and Telecommunications since 1992, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program the most important change in telecoms in his time is liberalisation, allowing private companies to enter the mobile telecoms market.
All the competitors agree on one thing, however: the market cannot sustain so many companies.
Syed Azmeer, chief marketing officer of Hello, says: "Basically it is a war of attrition. People are giving away free minutes and free SIM cards and there comes a certain point where they can't do that any more.
"Some of the not-so-serious players - once they amass a certain number of subscribers - will be up for sale."
MobiTel claims 60 percent of the market,and its parent company last month signed a loan for $US 100 million, which will be used to expand its coverage in rural areas.
Base stations
The company's chief operating officer, Kay Lot, thinks there is more urban growth to come, "but it won't last. There are only so many target markets that are still out there in the urban. So the longer-term strategy is to go out more into the rural areas."
To that end, MobiTel is erecting hundreds of new base stations each year.
Its more established competitors are also focusing their efforts outside the cities as the push to capture subscribers moves into the green Cambodian countryside.
Mobile phone rivals fight for Cambodia
Cambodian mobile phone companies will extend their reach into rural areas. [ABC]Sunday, April 19, 2009
Robert Carmichael, Phnom Penh
ABC Radio Australia
Cambodia has just 15 million people and is one of the poorest countries in the region - and yet it has nine mobile phone operators.
Five have launched in the last 15 months, and two more are preparing to open.
More than half the world's population has a mobile phone - there are 3.3 billion of the instruments according to latest figures.
But in Cambodia, says Thomas Hundt - chief executive of Smart, the latest entrant - market penetration is low, at 25 percent.
In other words, no more than one Cambodian in four owns a mobile phone and that makes telecommunication phone companies very excited.
Liberalisation
So Khun, Minister for Posts and Telecommunications since 1992, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia program the most important change in telecoms in his time is liberalisation, allowing private companies to enter the mobile telecoms market.
All the competitors agree on one thing, however: the market cannot sustain so many companies.
Syed Azmeer, chief marketing officer of Hello, says: "Basically it is a war of attrition. People are giving away free minutes and free SIM cards and there comes a certain point where they can't do that any more.
"Some of the not-so-serious players - once they amass a certain number of subscribers - will be up for sale."
MobiTel claims 60 percent of the market,and its parent company last month signed a loan for $US 100 million, which will be used to expand its coverage in rural areas.
Base stations
The company's chief operating officer, Kay Lot, thinks there is more urban growth to come, "but it won't last. There are only so many target markets that are still out there in the urban. So the longer-term strategy is to go out more into the rural areas."
To that end, MobiTel is erecting hundreds of new base stations each year.
Its more established competitors are also focusing their efforts outside the cities as the push to capture subscribers moves into the green Cambodian countryside.
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