A top Posts and Telecommunications official said this week the government will take action against a new Japanese callback phone service because it is operating illegally.
Tokyo-based Trans Pacific Telecom this month began advertising in Cambodia a long distance callback service. The service promises customers cheaper international phone rates than those charged by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.
But government officials said the service cannot be allowed to operate because it breaks the exclusive contract with Australia’s Telstra to route overseas calls into and out of Cambodia.
“It is definitely illegal,” Post and Telecommunications Undersecretary of State Koy Kimsea said Sunday of the callback service.
There was no response to questions e-mailed to Trans Pacific in Tokyo, and officials at Telstra, which holds the monopoly until 2000, declined to comment.
Callback services like Trans Pacific allow users to make long distance phone calls at the rates of the company’s home country, avoiding the higher tariffs where the user lives.
Subscribers dial the company’s number, in this case in Tokyo, then hang up. The company’s computer then calls the subscriber back, and the user, after entering a code number, dials the desired overseas phone number. The call is routed through the firm’s computer, located in a country where phone rates are lower, and the user pays those rates, usually by credit card.
While it may spell good news for phone users in Cambodia, such a service means lost revenue for the government and Telstra, which shares the government’s revenue.
Although the ministry still collects $1.10 per minute for the incoming call from Trans Pacific, it loses out on the $3 per minute outgoing call. So on each call, nearly $2 of revenue is lost.
Callback services operate in some countries that have highly deregulated markets, such as the US, said one industry source.
It remains unclear how the government proceed. Koy Kimsea said legal action would have to be taken in Japan to stop Trans Pacific. He said the government will contact the Japanese Embas-sy over the matter.
The industry source said, however, there was little the government could do to stop the service.
