Cambodia’s efforts to expand and upgrade its telecom infrastructure are bearing fruit of late. This is despite its status as a least developed country and remaining one of the poorer countries in the Southeast Asia. In this country with around 15 million people, there was very little infrastructure remaining from before the tumultuous Khmer Rouge days. As a result, Cambodia largely by-passed rebuilding the fixed-line market and quickly launched into alternative technologies, jump-starting its telecommunications infrastructure with digital technology. Not surprisingly, mobile services completely overwhelmed the market, at least initially. The roll-out of a variety of different network technologies has been more the pattern of late.

Alcatel-Lucent and Cambodia’s Chuan Wei Ltd., have signed a frame agreement to expand mobile ultra-broadband connectivity across the country. The deployment of Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE and VoLTE technologies will allow the Internet Service Provider to meet growing data demands of more enterprise customers while launching new consumer services.

Approximately one-third of Cambodians are connected to the Internet, with the majority accessing data on their mobile devices. Mobile subscription is increasing in the country – currently at 24.20 million, representing mobile saturation at 157 percent of the population with multiple subscriptions per user. Last year the number of active users accessing social media via their mobile devices increased by 108 percent, with approximately 80 percent of Internet traffic being driven by Facebook and YouTube applications.

Chuan Wei will offer nationwide high-quality, affordable connectivity to meet these growing demands and employed Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs Consulting to provide a vendor agnostic review of the market potential for their planned services. Using Alcatel-Lucent’s VoLTE technology, Chuan Wei will be able to deliver high-definition voice services to existing enterprise customers, dramatically enhancing the user experience and paving the way for the delivery of new, differentiated consumer services.

The nationwide ultra-broadband network will connect into the Alcatel-Lucent deployed 100G agile optical transport network and a submarine cable system, allowing Chuan Wei to offer affordable high-speed high-quality Internet and voice services where users most need them.

Key Facts

• Alcatel-Lucent will deploy key LTE and VoLTE technologies to support high-speed data and high-definition voice on a single platform. Under the frame agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will deliver its LTE-FDD radio access network (RAN), IP Mobile Core, Rapport™ communications software, backhaul connectivity using the 7705 Service Aggregation Router and 9500 Microwave Packet Radio, online charging system components of Surepay®, the Subscriber Data Manager, 5780 Dynamic Services Controller and Professional Services expertise.
• Network deployment will begin in some of the most densely populated cities – including Phnom Penh and the tourist destinations of Siem Reap region, home to the temple of Angkor Wat and the coastal resort of Sihanoukville. It will continue in the cities of Poipet and Bavet, on the borders with Thailand and Vietnam respectively as well as other major cities across the country, before completion during mid-2016.
• Bell Labs Consulting provided Chuan Wei analysis on their Business Plan from both a technology and a go-to-market perspective examining their Internet Service Provider, Data Center and Mobile Broadband service offerings.

Market Highlights

• Mobile penetration had reached 134% by end-2013;
• The crowded mobile market had started to see some rationalisation, the number of mobile operators falling from nine in 2011 to just three major players by 2014;
• Mfone was declared bankrupt and forced to exit the market;
• Hello Axiata and Smart Mobile merged to form a refreshed Smart Mobile, presenting a serious challenger to Viettel’s Metfone;
• Smart Axiata launched Cambodia’s first 4G/LTE network in early 2014;
• After a decade of growth, the fixed line numbers dropped sharply in 2013;
• By early 2014 a teledensity of just 3% was reported;
• The internet segment had also been struggling for some time;
• The rapid expansion of mobile broadband access, however, breathed life into this market segment;
• There were around 1.5 million mobile broadband subscribers by early 2014;
• The government launched the Telecommunications Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) in 2012;