I have used cellcard through my phone to laptop and generally found it to be sluggish, but this could be because of my phone, it's a bit old

I have tried SMART for a month on USB dongle and was really impressed then it started dropping out all the time so I gave up. I live on the south edge of PP, so that may have been a factor.

I have found METFone to be the best with USB dongle, cheap too $20 for 14gb/mth, good speeds, doesn't drop out much at all. Customer service is not great, but I haven't had much to complain about. Also, I have to go the provinces a lot and it works just about everywhere.

It's a good idea to buy your own dongle, so then you can test out the different companies, but it does cost a bit more.

thanks, do you know where you can buy a generic dongle that you are talking about and what sort of costs to expect. Probably trying each one would be the best idea as you have suggested. I assume I can just buy any mobile phone sim card from each operator and just add the internet package that they offer.

On cellcard I have been getting speeds between 5-6mb with iphone 4 which seems pretty good to me, just a lot more expensive (I live near russian market).

Anyone else have any experience with either?

I ve got the metfone dongle. and I use the UT20 deal where you get "unlimited" internet for a month. The connection is very stable.

The first 5/7gb you got very fast internet connection. and then they limit the rate to Down 40kb / upload 15kb.

It seems to be the best deal for 3g in cambodia.

Of course you can decide to not suscribe to the unlimited deal and get a limited 14giga without speed limitation. maybe i ll do that next month.

And on internet I think you can find tutorial to unlock the cellcard dongle to use with any simcard. Cause its a very common 3G dongle which is sell around the world.

So no need to buy another dongle.

Thanks, I havent purchased a dongle yet so might look for a computer store that would sell a generic one.

Anyone else tried Smart dongle?

The metfone $20 for 12GB deal has been withdrawn, so the next best is $12 for 4G which works out almost twice the price per GB.

Does the UT20 deal have a service level agreement, or do they just drop you down to 40kb (is that bits or bytes?) on a whim?

Metfone customer service is absolutely atrocious.

We can only watch with envy as the internet in almost every other country gets faster and cheaper month by month.

cellcard had a truly unlimited 3+mbit internet package for $40, 3 or 4 years ago, now the best seems to be capped at 20GB for $50, or unlimited at a crappy 256k speed.

Don't forget the "Fair Use Policy" they will throw at you with Cellcard.

Cellcard is $2.50 per GB, charged in increments of 2GB ($5); the low increment is annoying, but you can renew as often as you want. It is not automatically recharged from your account -- you send a text message to restart it each time. I use a newer Android device as a tether for my laptop, and have found the speeds to range from 512 to 1G depending on the time of day, location and whether or not it's raining (presumably because nearly everyone goes online while waiting for the rain to stop). So far this is the best service I've found.

Metfone is not faster that Cellcard, in my experience; however their network is more available outside of Phnom Penh. The cost is $3.00 per GB, charged in increments of 4GB ($12); the increment is still pretty low, and YOU CAN ONLY RENEW ONCE PER MONTH so you are maxxed out after 8GBs. They also renew you automatically every month until you go into a store and try to convince them to cancel your plan. Others have already spoken eloquently about the level of "service" in these stores; after several attempts I just left the number without any credit on it and let them keep trying for nothing.

Hello used to offer unlimited daily service at $3.50, which depending on your level of downloads could be cheaper than the other two above, however the text messaging system for activation was extremely fidgety and after many many visits to the shop to "unclog" their system, I finally gave up.

I'm curious if someone can give us a comparison (ie cost per GB, renewal frequency, speed, service) of the above choices with Smart Mobile.

The unlocked Huawei dongles can be purchased at most phone shops around Psar Thmei for $40. I do not recommend buying the "locked" versions, as part of the locking is a customized software interface which does not allow USSD functions or voice calling through the computer, whereas the unlocked version does allow this. In the past Hello was charging $30 for their locked dongle anyway -- so not much difference in the price.

http://www.smart.com.kh/en/services/internet/internet-kh

http://www.hello.com.kh/public/mobile_broadband/mobile_broadband.aspx?pa...

I believe a big problem with some of these plans (cellcard are particularly prone) is that they switch you automatically to the adhoc rate when you use up yoRu allowance. Since the adhoc rate is several times more expensive, you need to catch this or any balance on your card will get swallowed very quickly.

Another reason to use the unlocked Huawei dongle -- it includes (as do several Android apps) a usage tracker that gives you an alarm when you are about to exceed your package.

I think its pretty easy to find a generic dongle here. I bought one at a shop on Kampuchea Krom for $30, which was the same amount that Metfone wanted for theirs. It helps to try to bargain though.

hi, one month in and my cellcard service has been good with free back up support when I had an issue.
paid US$35 for the unit then $5 per month unlimited. Find early mornings and 7 pm onwards good for reception. Some times I just keep login off and back on till I get a good connection.

just now Im in Poiper, but find the reception issues same in most of main stream Cambodia.

lloyd oil99 [at] hotmail [dot] com

hi, one month in and my cellcard service has been good with free back up support when I had an issue.
paid US$35 for the unit then $5 per month unlimited. Find early mornings and 7 pm onwards good for reception. Some times I just keep login off and back on till I get a good connection.

just now Im in Poiper, but find the reception issues same in most of main stream Cambodia.

lloyd oil99 [at] hotmail [dot] com

thanks for the responses, sounds like no-one has really given Smart a try, might venture that way on the weekend and report back...

How did Smart work? Does it have decent speeds?

Does anyone have updates on other companies?

If anyone needs to sell a generic dongle I am looking to buy one.

Smart is cheaper and the service is so bad. I had the same idea as you. But suffered by regular drops in the line. You have to have a smart sim card to know what i mean. Constant network busy, internet connection errors. Since they joined up with Starcell they have gone down hill and many people are going back to Cellcard. Cheap is not necessary good!

Agree with you HR, I've done the smart experience and it's really not reliable.

For those who want to share their USB 3G connection with others at home and get a wifi network similar as with a router, just follow those steps - it works fine:

http://maketecheasier.com/share-3g-wireless-connection-in-windows-7/2010...