Cellcard aims for nationwide LTE by April

Cambodia’s Cellcard reportedly plans to roll out nationwide LTE services by April, becoming first past the post in the race to deploy 4G services covering the whole country.

The operator recently contracted Nokia to expand and modernize its 3G and LTE networks, including by deploying around 1,500 new cell sites.

Now Cellcard aims to achieve nationwide coverage by April. The operator has reportedly invested around $150 million in the 4G expansion project.

Cellcard’s main rivals Smart and Metfone are also investing heavily to expand their 3G and 4G presence. According to the report, Smart has to date rolled out 4G coverage to areas in all 25 provinces of the country and has upgraded around 65% of its roughly 2,100 base stations to 4G.

The company now plans to invest around $80 million towards upgrading around 80% of its base stations to 4G by the end of the year.

Metfone meanwhile aims to cover nearly the whole country with 3G and 4G coverage, with a goal of having 3,000 base stations supporting both technologies, but has not disclosed a timeline for meeting this target.

According to data from the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia, mobile internet subscriptions reached nearly 7.5 million in November, compared to a total mobile subscription base of around 19.5 million.