Mobile Phone Use in Cambodia

About 14 millions of Cambodian people are linked with advance technology. Nowadays phones play a main role in communication among the whole population.

A Cambodian youth is using his
two mobile phones simultaneously

A survey conducted by the BBC World Service Trust and the Cambodian Ministry of Environment, released in 2011, informs that 91% of Cambodians have access to a mobile phone. Among those people, 60% have their own mobile phone.

For non-mobile users, they have access to a mobile phone of their relatives (30%), phone booths (23%), spouses (13%), friends (8%), and neighbours (6%).

Mobile Phone Networks

Mobitel and Metphone are the leading mobile phone networks, which half of the respondents interviewed (52%) use.

Mobitel appears to have a significantly lower presence in Coastal and Mountain regions (28% and 31% respectively), while Metphone has a significantly higher presence in these areas (62% in Coastal and 67% in Mountain regions).

Mobile Phone Functions

One important function of a mobile phone that all Cambodians use is making and receiving calls. Besides the call function, they use phone to:

• Listen to music 60%
• Play with ring tones 50%
• Take photos 47%
• Send and receive SMS 45%
• Play games 39%
• Play with call tunes 33%
• Listen to radio 33%
• Record audio 29%

However, very few use their phones to access to the internet (5%).

Reference

BBC World Service Trust and the Ministry of Environment, (2011), Understanding Public Perceptions of Climate Change In Cambodia