Internet provider Ezecom said it would help
build the Kingdom’s first undersea communications cable, a long-delayed project
that was originally announced in 2013 and slated for completion at the end of
last year.
The
construction of the Malaysia-Cambodia-Thailand cable will “bring faster, more
affordable broadband to the people of Cambodia and connect the country to the
rest of the world like never before”, a company statement released yesterday
reads.
The
contract is to be signed through Ezecom-owned group Telcotech with Telkom
Malaysia and Thailand’s Symphony Communication on Monday.
Ezecom
CEO Paul Blanche-Horgan said that the delay in constructing the cable was due
to negotiations with other companies, along with obtaining permission to build
landing stations to accommodate the cable.
“It just
takes time,” he said.
According
to Blanche-Horgan, once the contract is signed on Monday, the cable will be
finished in about 16 months.
“They’ll
start making the cable and start building quite soon.”
Blanche-Horgan
said it wasn’t only Ezecom customers set to benefit from the fast connection,
as the firm plans to sell the high-speed internet wholesale to the Cambodian
market.
In June
of 2013, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Ezecom and Telkom
Malaysia to build the undersea cable. A Thai partner was slated to be found by
end 2013.
At the
time, the deal was cited as being worth $80 million. However, Blanche-Horgan
declined to say if that number had changed.
The
planned 1,425-kilometre line will connect Cambodia to Malaysia, passing through
Thailand on the way. Once in Malaysia, it will hook up to the Asia-American
Gateway (AAG), a 20,000-kilometre cable connecting Southeast Asia to the United
States.
Ezecom’s
acquisition of Telcotech in 2011 enabled it to link up to the AAG, as Telcotech
was AAG’s only Cambodian member.
High-speed
internet is lacking in Cambodia, as it is not directly connected to the AAG and
must rely on Thailand or Vietnam for its connectivity.
According
to a recent survey from Seattle-based firm Ookla, Cambodia had the
third-slowest internet in Southeast Asia.
Cambodia
ranked above Laos and Myanmar, but was still 110th worldwide with an average
download speed of 9 megabits per second.
Neighbours
Thailand and Vietnam had speeds of 19.9 and 17.6 megabits per second,
respectively.
The
survey reported that Ezecom’s average speed ranked eighth out of the 20 largest
internet service providers in Cambodia, with an average download speed of 7.17
megabits per second, below the national average.
Blanche-Horgan
disputed the finding.
“I don’t
know where these people get a hold of those figures,” he said. “We’ve got
customers that are using 5 gigabytes.”
But
Ezecom’s plan to link Cambodia to a major international cable is not alone.
A rival
project was announced in June of 2014 by Japanese firm NTT, which said it would
link Cambodia to the Japan-based Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE) network.
NTT said the ASE would be the first cable to connect directly with Cambodia,
although it did not give a completion date to its project.
NTT could
not be reached for comment yesterday.
Contact
author: Charles
Rollet
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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