Cambodia appeals for more mobile phone investment

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia's telecommunications minister called on Wednesday for more foreign firms to invest in the country's mobile phone sector to satisfy demand that has been growing 40 percent a year in terms of the number of users.

"We want more foreign firms because we want a better service, cheaper, and higher quality," So Khun told reporters at a seminar on mobile phone technology, adding that the government also wanted to extend reliable coverage to the whole of the country.

Cambodia has an estimated 4 million mobile phone subscribers out of a population of about 14 million people, 80 percent of whom live in the countryside.

Khun said mobile phones had helped integrate people living in remote areas, particularly those in parts of the country still covered with land mines from the country's civil war, which only formally ended a decade ago.

"Our people, they love to talk over the phone for business communication. They talk until their phone batteries go dead," Khun said.

The southeast Asian country has eight mobile phone firms, all foreign-owned except market leader Mobitel, which works in partnership with Luxembourg-registered Millicom International Cellular (MICC.O).

"We want the existing companies to set up more antennas, but don't build them near or on historic sites," he said, recalling how in the past one foreign firm caused outrage by siting an antenna on an ancient temple. (Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould)