Faster, cheaper Internet for Cambodia

Fuelled by downward pressure on internet pricing, state-owned Telecom
Cambodia had dramatically increased its fibre-optic link.

The new 10-gigabyte connection would lower prices and boost the speed
of Cambodian internet connections.

Bandwidth available in Cambodia still far exceeded internet users'
ability to use it, insiders said.

Exponential increases in demand were concentrated not in fixed
connections in households or office buildings, but in wireless
connections such as third-generation mobile services and internet
dongles, which connect to computer USB ports, Shan said.

Demand for bandwidth in Cambodia was split about 50-50 between
fixed-fibre connections and mobile operators, who were most likely
seeing jumps in 3G users, he said.

Fixed-fibre connections would become more accessible to Cambodian
households as prices fell, Shan said.

Boosts in bandwidth such as Telecom Cambodia's recent move were
attempts to compete with continually falling prices.

Supply was still much greater than that demanded by the country's
estimated 600,000 internet users, he said.

"What's available here is far more than Cambodia can consume."