Cambodia’s leading mobile phone company, MobiTel, will expand its network nationwide using equipment supplied by the French company Alcatel, according to an agreement signed last week.
The two signed a contract worth $63 million last Thursday in Paris in the presence of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who was there for the donors meeting.
Financing comes from MobiTel’s parent company Royal Group and the Swedish Millicom International Cellular Co. The financial agreement was announced in late February.
“We’d like to develop MobiTel with the latest telecommunications equipment and make the best [mobile phone] network in Asean,” said Royal Group president Kith Meng.
According to Alcatel, it will supply digital base stations, a switching center with a capacity of 100,000 subscribers and microwave transmission systems. Services such as voice mail and prepaid cards will be available on the network.
Mobile phones represent one of the fastest growing industries in Cambodia. Hun Sen said at the Paris signing ceremony that cellular users have grown from about 40,000 in January 1999 to more than 100,000 today. MobiTel has more than 70,000 subscribers, according to the company.
Alcatel is one of the largest telecommunications equipment suppliers in the world, operating in more than 130 countries.
