As we all know from the huge billboards all over town and the none stop TV and newspaper ads the telco’s here are really slugging it out over their respective 3G offerings at the moment. This is great news for us consumers, as it’s a buyers market! I mean, just check out the current deal from Mobitel, unlimited 3G for $5 a month?!!!!
There’s been talk for a long time that Cambodia was going ‘leap frog’ its neighbours by skipping, copper and fibre and going straight to wireless technologies, but now it’s not just talk, it’s actually happening and it’s amazing to watch.
The numbers are phenomenal for such a small country, we have five separate mobile companies offering 3G (Beeline about to make it six!), and another four offering WiMax.
I’ve got a head cold today so wasn’t in the mood for code, so instead I decided to do a pepsi challenge on the pre-paid plans from Mobitel, Hello and Metfone.
The test isn’t that scientific, I’m just chucking the sim cards in my HTC Desire, tethering it to my computer and running SpeedTest.net to a London server from my mother in laws house on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
Here are the results:
Mobitel
Ok so let’s test the market incumbent that’s now having it’s dominant position challenged from all sides.
Price: $5 per month, unlimited data usage
Speed:
Conclusion:
So, we have very good down speed, very poor up speed and a terrible ping time. Mobitel’s connection has gone down hill since they slashed the prices probably as a result of over subscription. Mobitel is great for downloads and I often get speeds over 4Mb/s but the latency and up speed make it very poor for surfing and things like Skype.
Hello
Next we have Hello the perennial under achiever, they capitalised for a short while on Mobitel’s f*#k up last year when they suddenly stopped offering unlimited data and bumped up their data prices to crazy levels. They were also the first to start behaving like an ISP by offering a 3G dongle option (which now they are all doing).
Cost:
$20-$90 per month (depending on speed) with unlimited data.
Speed: (Disclaimer: I can only get 2 bar HSDPA signal at this location)
Conclusion:
This was a competitive package one or two years ago, but the internet market in Cambodia is changing very quickly, the price and the speed just don’t cut it any more. Admittedly I had a weak signal when taking the test and have seen quicker speeds from Hello, but this is a Hello problem, unlike the others they don’t seem to have blanket 3g coverage in Phnom Penh and I often get switched to Edge in curtain locations.
Metfone
The new kid on the block, owned by Vietel (Vietnam’s biggest telco) this lot seem to have Mobitel running scared and I’m not surprised as they have come in very aggressively, laying their own fiber optic network out to all provincial capitals and then beginning their public private partnership pledge to connect every high school in the country. Then giving free sim cards to the entire military. They clearly have a lot of money to burn and know the technology but still Mobitel are running rings around them in terms of the advertising campaigns and market image. Anyway who gives a crap about that, I just want quick internet on my phone!
Cost:
Metfone have a very complicated array of plans, a terrible website and customer service that makes Mobitel look good. But the price basically boils down to about $2/GB which isn’t bad. I actually prefer a sensibly priced pay for what you use model as apposed to unlimited as it keeps all the bit-torrent and download freaks off the network and doesn’t give any incentive to throttle.
Speed:
Conclusion:
Cheaper than Hello, more expensive than Mobitel, but the best quality connection of the three by a long shot. The ping times and up-speeds are acceptable and it shows in the browsing which feels snappy and responsive.
Final Conclusion
For me Metfone is clearly at the top of the stack, their numbers are consistent and their pay for usage as apposed to unlimited is in my opinion a big plus as it will stop the service being degraded by high bandwidth users and gives them no incentive to throttle the line.
These are all prepaid so there is absolutely no reason why you can’t have a sim from all three sat around and if one’s having an off day just put another in your dongle.
The other trick with the internet in Cambodia is to stay agile, the internet market is changing so quickly here at the moment that in six months I’m sure the conclusions won’t be the same, so remember not to get locked into any contracts or expensive setup fee’s so that you can change your internet providers like the weather.
