Smart Mobile - the First to Operate 4G LTE in Cambodia

Photo: Smart Mobile

While getting into a crowded telecom market in Cambodia, Smart Axiata Company Limited or so-called Smart Mobile recently became a subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad (Axiata) after it entered into a strategic merger with Hello Axiata Company Limited in 2012. It operates 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.75G mobile services, supporting the very latest in multimedia and mobile internet services as well as international roaming across more than 147 countries and its extensive nationwide network coverage is available in all 24 provinces in Cambodia, according to its company information. The technology is moving, so Smart cannot stop to offer the competitive promotions to the customers by various services - now it is starting to operate the first 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) technology in this Kingdom of Wonder, Cambodia.

Does Smart Mobile operate its 4G LTE nationwide?
No, currently it can offer only 6 locations in Phnom Penh city such as:
1. Smart Store Beung Trabek
2. Naga World Hotel and Casino
3. Sovanna Shopping Center
4. Ratana Plaza Shopping Mall
5. De Castle Toul Kork
6. Phnom Penh International Airport

This is a step-by-step improvement and also cost much money to expand the coverage. I think sooner it will be available nationwide.
You can find Smart 4G Zones on my map using Google Maps Engine:

What's different  between 3G and 4G?
Turning a bit to find out the difference between both technologies as the following:

	3G	4G
Data Throughput	Up to 3.1Mbps with an average speed range between 0.5 to 1.5 Mbps	Practically speaking, 2 to 12 Mbps (Telstra in Australia claims up to 40 Mbps) but potential estimated at a range of 100 to 300 Mbps.
Peak Upload Rate	5 Mbps	500 Mbps
Peak Download Rate	100 Mbps	1 Gbps
Switching Technique	packet switching	packet switching, message switching
Network Architecture	Wide Area Cell Based	Integration of wireless LAN and Wide area.
Services And Applications	CDMA 2000, UMTS, EDGE etc	Wimax2 and LTE-Advance
Forward error correction (FEC)	3G uses Turbo codes for error correction.	Concatenated codes are used for error corrections in 4G.
Frequency Band	1.8 – 2.5 GHz	2 – 8 GHz

Chart Credit: diffen.com

Try a watch through below video by iClassified for testing Internet speed on iPhone 5 using SpeedTest apps:


Which company is Smart's competitor in the technology, 4G?
Personally, I think there is only one company that presently got into Cambodia telecom market is Chinese mobile operator called Xinwei (Cambodia) Telecom Co. Ltd. with CooTel-branded. CooTel it has some strong points such as being the first mobile operator in network marketing, and various services (CooCall, CooHome, CooVoice, CooSurf, SimLess, CamTalk, CooMarts, CooBill), and especially the future expanding its network coverage signal to reach 90 percent of the Cambodian population.

So, you may know which one is the first operator that makes itself the 1st 4G telecom network ever built in Cambodia - it is CooTel (prefix number, 038)!. But there are two main points that they both differentiate are:
1. Smart offers 4G LTE (revolution of GSM technology), or be easy to think, it uses SIM card; when we need just buy SIM only.
2. CooTel offers SCDMA technology or it uses SIM-cardless (No SIM card) - similar to ExeCell-018 operates; when we need we have to buy its phone.
In short, CooTel selling both services and its own phones and if it becomes popular among Cambodian users so the market of CDMA phones will boom, am I right?.

After all above, I have some questions for you as a checklist before you decide to catch up with today-technology:
1. What is your decision to choose the technology for your daily Internet usage (3.75G, 4G or CDMA)?
2. How much are you able to spend on those (supported smart devices: mobile, tablet, modem)
3. Does it really fit to your needs (for study, research, fun, work etc.)?
4. Do all mobile operators in Cambodia offer you with good services as you expected?

Let's wait and try the new technology together!