Giant Telstra turns over IDD service to Cambodia

Giant Telstra turns over IDD service to Cambodia

PHNOM PENH (DPA): Australian communications giant Telstra handed over its highly profitable monopoly on international telephone service in Cambodia after its 10-year contract ended Monday.

Telstra Cambodia earned more than 100 million dollars through its exclusive contract over the 10 years, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun told Monday's ceremony.

The government's revenue-sharing deal from the monopoly earned it 200 million dollars over the same period, he said.

Monday's hand-over raised the possibility of competition among international direct dial (IDD) service for the first time, but left the cash-strapped government with the huge task of developing the country's still-scant telecommunications sector.

"This is an important turning point for telecommunications reform," Prime Minister Hun Sen said at a ceremony Monday. Cambodia has lagged behind most of Asia in telecommunications because its infrastructure was ravaged by decades of civil war with Khmer Rouge guerrillas.

In 1990, the government granted Telstra exclusive IDD service in exchange for its promise to invest more than 20 million dollars in building a telecommunications infrastructure almost from scratch.

The country still has only about 20,000 phone lines and the vacuum has allowed mobile telephones to outrank fixed lines by about five to one.

Swedish telecoms giant Millicom International is reportedly in negotiations with the government for form a joint-venture to operate IDD service in competition with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications' own service, but officials would not confirm details of any deal Monday.

Though it is losing its IDD service, Telstra will retain its BigPond Internet gateway service in Cambodia.