Smart Axiata pressing ahead with its award-winning 4G broadband services, strengthening its data leadership position in Cambodia
Phnom Penh, 6th February 2017: Smart Axiata, a leading mobile telecommunications company in Cambodia, is celebrating its 8th anniversary with another award; this time from Ookla as Cambodia’s Fastest Mobile Network while it continues to put best-in-class mobile broadband services in the hands of more Cambodians at an affordable price.
The 2016 Speedtest Award by Ookla is the latest of a string of awards received by Smart. Besides being recognized as Cambodia’s Mobile Service Provider 2016 by market research firm Frost & Sullivan and winning the Best Community Project Award by Telecom Asia for its involvement in Cambodia’s National Literacy Campaign in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport as well as UNESCO, Smart has also been lauded by Global Banking and Finance Review as both the Best Telco and the Best CSR Company for two consecutive years – 2015 and 2016.
This latest award by Ookla, the global leader in broadband speed testing, comes hard on the heels of significant new investments in state-of-the-art technology during recent months as part of Smart’s data leadership journey to be the fastest mobile Internet service provider in the Kingdom. Ookla runs the speedtest.net website which is the industry standard for measuring upload and download speeds over a mobile or fixed Internet connection.
Smart was the first telco to introduce true 4G LTE technology to Cambodia in 2014 and now more than 65% of all its base stations across all 25 provinces are equipped with 4G (while 100% of its base stations are equipped with 3G as well). Smart then became the first mobile company to upgrade its 4G LTE network to 4G+ in September 2016, where Carrier Aggregation is used to widen the spectrum used for 4G and thereby increases the capacity of the base stations and consequentially speed users can get.
In its drive to continue improving the experience of its customers, Smart is now rolling out VoLTE (Voice Over Long Term Evolution) to give users a better 4G experience that promises to connect voice callers more quickly combined with High Definition audio quality of voice calls. Samsung Galaxy S7 / S7 Edge, Huawei P9 Plus, Huawei GR5 and Apple’s iPhones 6 / 6s / 7 already support this service, also dubbed HD Voice, giving many Cambodians the opportunity for faster call setup, a seamless call experience and HD voice quality on Smart’s advanced 4G+ LTE network.
“We are at an amazing point in Cambodia’s digital revolution where faster and better mobile data services are available to consumers across the Kingdom at a very affordable price. This latest award from Ookla is a testament to our continuous investment in the ICT sector over the last 8 years while evolving into a digital lifestyle brand by leveraging our strong 4G LTE value proposition, exclusive partnerships with leading device and content providers, as well as new digital services,” said Smart Axiata CEO Thomas Hundt.
“As a key development partner of Cambodia, we take the investment and infrastructure side of the business very seriously. We realize there is huge potential to create a sustainable digital economy here as envisioned by the Royal Government of Cambodia. Smart has been consistent in its investment in Cambodia; in 2016, we invested another 75 million USD, largely for 4G network expansions. We will invest another 80 million USD in 2017, in line with Smart’s priority and commitment to deliver the fastest and widest mobile Internet service – 4G+ with HD Voice powered by Smart – to all Cambodians.” he added.