Telecoms Infrastructure in The Kingdom of Cambodia: Newly appointed Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Chea Vandeth urged two Chinese telecom giants – China Communication Construction Co Ltd (CCCC) and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd – to further invest in the Kingdom’s telecommunications infrastructure in a move to bring Cambodia into the full realm of 5G digital technology.
The appeal comes as the Ministry of Information is set to release the 700MHz frequency band to the telecommunications ministry in the coming years to help it develop the 5G network.
It was made during a meeting between Vandeth, Huawei Technologies (Cambodia) Co Ltd CEO Yao Yuya and CCCC subsidiary China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) Cambodia Office general manager Zhan Jinsheng at the ministry on Friday.
Vandeth said the ministry’s priority in the development of telecommunications infrastructure is to ensure better quality, scope and cost-effectiveness of underwater cables, backbone networks, access networks, international internet gateways and other groundwork.
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“The management of telecommunications infrastructures is a key element, not only for economic competition, but also national security and political geography,” he said.
He encouraged the two companies to increase their investment and collaboratively develop telecommunications infrastructures in Cambodia to be used as a basis in minimising digital gaps that will help bring the Kingdom into the fourth industrial revolution.
Huawei’s Yao said his company has been investing in a lot of telecommunications infrastructure development projects in Cambodia.
In June, Huawei announced a plan, in partnership with CCCC, to install an undersea or submarine fibre-optic communications cable connecting Cambodia’s Sihanoukville and Hong Kong.
The cable will help boost the Kingdom’s internet connectivity, especially when it becomes a digital economy, said Huawei.
Cambodia’s first undersea telecommunications cable was officially laid in March 2017 at a cost of roughly $100 million.
Known as the ‘MCT cable’ (Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand), the project was a joint-venture between the Kingdom’s Telcotech Ltd (a subsidiary of Ezecom Co Ltd), Malaysia-based Telekom Malaysia Bhd, and Thailand’s Symphony Communication Pcl.
Comprising a system of 1,300km of optical fibre cable, it boasts a capacity of at least 30 terabytes per second.
Last year, Cambodia had 16.7 million mobile internet users and 215,000 fixed broadband connections, telecommunications ministry data shows.
