Having an IT background is so frustrating. Sometimes, I wish I didn't know anything IT related so that my expectations for internet service here in the Kingdom wouldn't be so high.

I'd love to get a current poll on different internet providers currently servicing CEO members. I know what's available, but I want to know your true experience.

This is what I currently know from experience or dealing with different ISPs.

Ezecom -- most expensive $40/mb and up for different perks such as double speed at night, static IP, etc.
Online/MekongNet/S.I. Net -- the same as Ezecom but maybe a tad cheaper. They all offer dedicated internet packages with good reliability and consistent speed.

Opennet -- I've had a pretty bad experience with them. They are selling really high speed (15mb for $39/month) for ridiculously low prices, but i just don't get how they can get away with it. Additionally, I hear nothing but bad reports from consumers using Opennet. I have tried them and had a good experience for about 2 weeks, but after that the service tanked.

Digi/Metfone -- no experience, but I hear it's similar in service offerings like Opennet.

USB Dongles -- metfone/Cellcard. I suppose this is ok, but really doesn't work for a home network. I guess this would be sufficient for an individual living alone.

Report on Smart 4g -- I have had a very good experience with Smart 4g. Their coverage takes care of me in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Takhmao. However, they are advertising 4g coverage in Siem Reap, Kampong Chnam as well. The service sucks in Saang. Another bonus, 4g service is now free to subscribe to and devices aren't so limited. I usually subscribe to 8.5gb monthly data for $10. If I need to download something really quick, like 15-20mb/s, I can just use my personal hotspot feature on my phone and it's on my computer before I know it. Super fast!


I'm hoping prices continue to decrease. I'm just getting impatient

Eze charges around $100 for a 1.5 Mbps fiber connection. I think that summarizes how I feel about them.

Don't use ISPs that spent their hard earned angel investments on WiMAX and now screw over customers trying to turn those margins with outdated equipment.

Digicom is a joke so large that it deserves its own thread.

Prices aren't going to decrease any time soon. A telecoms background, rather than an IT one, would explain that...

This was the least regulated telecoms market in history. Dozens of companies opened up here and built their own weird and wonderful infrastructure. Whilst many of them have been consigned to the rubbish bin of history now... the infrastructure (and whatever customer acquisition they had) has been bought up in a long series of M&A work.

Cambodia has very few people capable of affording Internet, when compared to the size of population, so there's a lot of investment to be paid back by a small number of people. At the moment, services are being sold at break even because there's still too much competition here - when a couple more operators are gone, costs are going to rise not decline. Investors are going to start wanting their cash back sooner or later with a profit.

I was in telecoms for more than a decade and have set up two operators and revamped a third. Cambodia's market is and was a disaster and it's going to take a decade or more to revitalize it efficiently.

TheGrinchSR wrote:Cambodia has very few people capable of affording Internet, when compared to the size of population, so there's a lot of investment to be paid back by a small number of people. At the moment, services are being sold at break even because there's still too much competition here - when a couple more operators are gone, costs are going to rise not decline. Investors are going to start wanting their cash back sooner or later with a profit.

Some ISPs (DigiCom) purposefully connect more subscribers to their equipment than the equipment can handle. They entertain customers experiencing problems by telling them to disconnect their gear and "wait X minutes" (as long as it takes for the session to timeout in the RADIUS backend). When they reconnect, somebody else will get knocked off instead, causing that person to (potentially) phone support and the circus continues.

I dare saying that nearly all ISPs except for the single one that controls all international uplinks (Ezecom owns 100% Telcotech shares) oversell their connections. They rely on the fact that most users won't request unique content but mostly the same YouTube videos etc, which is all being served from cache. What I'm saying is that some ISPs sell you access to their cached data, and that works fine until subscribers try to connect to unique remote services when speed suddenly drops or becomes unusable.

And let's talk about AAG. What is it now, 5 times in 2 years that it's broken off outside Vietnam? Get these motherfucking sharks off this motherfucking plane! 60-80% packet loss and over 9000 ms latency to twgate.net in India is getting old.



Yeah, I'm frustrated. Is there any ISP actually worth having? Most of these actors appear to be peering amateurs. I need a little bit more than stable HTTP traffic. I had an extremely frustrating incident with CooTel which would detect me portscanning my own servers (pretty normal activity for system administrators) and pure and simple null route all my traffic and accuse me of hacking, yes hacking, myself.

Grinch speak heap big wisdom.

Has Smart actually rolled out their 4G network in Sihanoukville? Is there a coverage map available somewhere?

I have a Galaxy S4 and smart's 4G won't work. I was using 4G on Verizon in America on my S3 about 3 years ago. Sad.

Is this the same guy who asked me about this on the PoE forum?

Yes, 4g works! I don't know phone requirements, but I can confirm my iPhone 6 works just fine.

6EQUJ5 wrote:Has Smart actually rolled out their 4G network in Sihanoukville? Is there a coverage map available somewhere?

Sir_Quality_U_Feel wrote:I have a Galaxy S4 and smart's 4G won't work. I was using 4G on Verizon in America on my S3 about 3 years ago. Sad.

I assume you have a 4G compatible S4, i don't think all versions are. Your'e not using an old smart sim which can't get 4G?