Cell phone service provider

The 3 biggest telcos are Smart, Mobitel and Metfone. Smart has 4G (12x faster than normal 3G) therefore it is arguably the fastest in the country at the moment, though it is limited to Phnom Penh and major provinces like Takhmao, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville. Smart charges 1 cent per 500kb, the cost for your duration really depends on your usage. For an average user not downloading movies, USD5 to USD10 should be sufficient for a week. For more information on Smart: smart.com.kh/plans/prepaid/traveller-sim

Mobitel is the incumbent and is also generally reliable. Metfone is also a good choice and I know you can receive internet on Metfone even in some remote islands whereas it is not possible on the other telcos.

Their traveller SIM does look interesting, thx for the link. 1.5Gb should be sufficient. What about the white spots on their map, are these mostly uninhabited areas? http://www.smart.com.kh/coverage-checker

Yes very likely these are remote heavily forested or mountainous areas

I have dual sim with smart and mobitel. Whereas smart is definitely a lot cheaper, mobitel has faster and more reliable internet. If you don't mind the cost, you're far better off with mobitel.

I'm not sure though whether they'd sell you a sim card if you don't have a 6 months' visa.

Is this the same one: http://cellcard.com.kh/cellcard-internet ?

Yes, mobitel is the company, and cellcard the product. One and the same.

Thx, so yes, coverage and reliability is more important to me than price, I'll try to get one of these, although it might be less convenient to get one (Smart has a booth at the airport in PP, I don't know if they have one too)

I was at the airport today, and I think I saw an unstaffed mobitel booth. But for sure short term visitors are not their target group.

So I've been travelling cross-country for 2 1/2 weeks, I'll have to leave on Wednesday, I wanted to give everybody an update on what I chose and how it went. Since I was travelling alone (and by scooter), I wanted to have the best coverage and chose a Cellcard SIM. I have a terrible sense of direction and was relying on my iPhone (Google Maps) to find my way around, and Cellcard did not disappoint me. I think there was only one place where I had no signal at all, it was on one part of the National Park Trail in Kep (the iPhone 4 (mine) hasn't the best reception, maybe other phones would get a signal, but it is pretty weak almost everywhere in Kep). On the plus-side, even when the signal was weak, the data speed was always fast enough for Google Maps to be used without problems or long waiting times.

Also, their booth at the airport (PP) was staffed when I got there with the afternoon/evening flight.

Cons: the initial setup for 4.50$ gave me a data plan for just 7 days, after that I decided to load another 5$ to be on the safe side, but wrong again: this time, I've used up the 1.5 Gb worth of data within 12 days. Obviously, Google Maps is a data- guzzler, but for example, last year in Vietnam I just got a SIM with an unlimited data plan, and that was it, I used it to do more or less the same, and I didn't have to buy more credits during the same period. So, I'll probably buy another 2 bucks of data, that will make a total of 11.50$ for 3 weeks. I made a few local calls, I guess they are really cheap. Overall, it worked very good, I'll probably use the same operator again in the future.

Thx to all for your advice

hello Kurterino,

Thank you for your update, it is very helpful.

Looking forward to read you soon,
Gavind.
Expat.com Team.

Thx for reading it, Gavind

A little corrigendum: the data package I had purchased contains 3.5 Gb (for 5$), not 1.5 as stated in my post. I am amazed how much data I've used, most of the surfing was done on the various hotels' Wifis, I guess these maps really do contain a sh*tload of data! On the plus-side, that's the second time (last time was in Vietnam) that I drove through a country that I did not know, needed no maps to buy and found my way around as if it was my hometown, didn't even make ONE WRONG TURN! I remember those days when there was no GPS, and sometimes you'd be desperately looking for some side street that should be "just right here"...

Better have a spare phone or at least a power bank though...