I live in rural Cambodia about 10 kilometers outside of Kampong Cham city. I have no electricity and have used a 3G stick with a Metphone Sim card. It worked well for years, but now there is no connection. I use the same set-up in Kampong Cham city and it works; in fact, I'm using it now.

Recently I noticed a new relay station(Smart I've been told) not far from my home. Is it possible that this could cause interference with metphone or is it possible they've reached "a gentleman's agreement" concerning areas of coverage and have failed to notify their customers? If I decide to go with a new company how do I find out which company can reach my area? Who do you recommend? As far as I know I have the only computer in the small village so local recommendations are not available.

Maybe you could buy a generic USB stick (i got one for $25) then you can try any sim in it and see which network works best

Thanks GeneralMac, it is indeed EDGE or sometimes another non-metphone type of nomenclature. But I think it has always been this way even when it worked, so is the notion of a new relay tower(SMART) irrelevant to my problem. I'm quite uniformed about techy things. Thanks

I've had the metfone 3G stick for over a year and have been satisfied with it, but recently the internet has been really slow or won't connect with sites using it. Has something changed at Metfhone recently? Can anyone recommend a fiberoptic company in Snooky? Price/Contract?

Sailorman wrote:I've had the metfone 3G stick for over a year and have been satisfied with it, but recently the internet has been really slow or won't connect with sites using it. Has something changed at Metfhone recently? Can anyone recommend a fiberoptic company in Snooky? Price/Contract?

I've been using it for around 2 years now I guess (in PP) and a couple of months ago it was really crap. I changed it to UMTS only and it has worked much better since, I had noticed that when it was on EDGE it was particularity crap. I think you need to be off-line to change the setting from memory.

If you have a Metfone dongle, you can take it to a phone shop and have them unlock it so you can use it with other carriers. Should cost $2 or $3. My experience is trial and error--there's no real way to know which provider will work best at your house other than trying each one. If there's a Smart tower near you, I'd try them first. Looks like they actually are cheaper per GB than Metfone: http://www.smart.com.kh/en/service/internet/internet-en

As it happens I have a generic dongle and the service has just recently started to deteriorate here in Kampong Cham. Still, I would like to know how those relay stations work. Are they multi directional or do they transmit in my direction? Like I said, I am a non compus mentis about these issues. Thanks again.

I can't help you there. I had the same thing happen, but it turned out my dongle had crapped out.

Try dropping the SIM out of the dongle (it CAN be done) and checking it with a smartphone. Should give you an idea of whether it's the dongle or the service.