Smart and Facebook bring Free Basics to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH, 08^th October 2015 – Smart Axiata and Facebook today announced they are partnering to bring Facebook’s Free Basics to Cambodia.

Smart’s partnership with Facebook aims to connect the next 1 million Cambodians to the Internet, to make the Internet more accessible for Cambodians through a set of free basic services.

Despite more than 98% of the population residing in areas with existing Smart cellular coverage – and despite fast (3G) and super-fast (4G LTE) data networks of Smart (covering more than 60% of the entire population of Cambodia), only about 26% of the total population are connected to the internet.  

For many in Cambodia, awareness and affordability are barriers preventing them from enjoying the possibilities and benefits of the internet. Smart and Facebook have partnered to bring the benefits of internet connectivity, such as information and the latest news, and access to health care information, education resources, employment and business opportunities to Cambodians.

Through this partnership, Cambodians will have access to a set of useful health, education, employment and local information services with zero data charges now. Available on the Smart network in Cambodia, Free Basics by Facebook, sponsored by Smart offers Cambodians access to a number of useful services in both Khmer and English, including Facebook as such, Dictionary.com, Wikipedia, Ask, Bing, Messenger, Khmerload and more.

Anna Nygren, Head of APAC growth & partnerships from Facebook believes this initiative will benefit the millions of Cambodians who currently do not have access to the Internet. “Making the Internet accessible through a set of free basic services that are locally relevant can have a big impact and lead to more people discovering tools and information that can help them lead to better lives. Together with Smart Axiata, we are working to make affordable Internet access available to more Cambodians and make the opportunities of the Internet available to everyone.”

Thomas Hundt, Chief Executive Officer of Smart Axiata said, “Connectivity in Cambodia is being redefined. Connectivity is more than just a phone call or a SMS; being connected to the Internet is true connectivity in 2015. While amongst Smart subscribers a far higher percentage use the Internet on regular basis than the Cambodian average already, still more than 50% of all Smart subscribers do not ‘go online’ yet and this is what we want to change! Therefore, our team is working amazingly hard to make connectivity, access to the Internet, as affordable as it has to be to connect those not using the web yet, to roll out fast and mobile Internet to literally every corner of the Kingdom as well as to remove all barriers which prevent people from going online.” 

He added: “Smart brought 4G LTE, the fastest mobile Internet, to Cambodian last year, being still the only operator in the Kingdom offering this latest technology. Meanwhile 4G LTE by Smart is available in all 25 provinces and not only in the respective province capitals but beyond also in cities like Poipet, Udong, Neak Leung, Moung Russey or Memot. Our latest effort to connect more Cambodians is through this fantastic partnership between Smart and Facebook. We aim to attract 1 million more Internet subscribers with this joint initiative. Ultimately we want to bridge the digital divide completely and want to make everyone of our currently more than 8.1 million Smart subscribers a part of the connected world.”