SIM cards and internet in Cambodia

Three operators cover almost the whole country. Smart has the strongest reputation for urban 4G and 5G speed and is popular with younger users. Cellcard is the Cambodian-owned operator with solid coverage and frequent tourist bundles. Metfone has the widest rural and border-area reach, which matters if you travel through Ratanakiri, Preah Vihear or remote parts of Mondulkiri.

For a city-only trip any of the three is fine. If your itinerary includes provinces or islands, Metfone or Smart are the safer picks. Coverage on the smaller islands off Sihanoukville is patchy for all networks, and drops out entirely on some beaches.

SIMs are sold at the airport, at operator shops and at thousands of small phone stalls. Registration with a passport is mandatory — a stall will scan or photograph your passport page and activate the line in a few minutes. Buy from an official shop or a stall that registers the SIM in front of you rather than an unregistered pre-activated card, which can be cut off without warning.

Airport counters charge a small premium for convenience. In town, a starter SIM with a week or a month of data typically costs $2 to $5. Top-ups are sold as scratch cards or, more commonly now, loaded directly by the vendor or through the operator's app.

eSIMs are available from all three operators and from international travel-eSIM providers. Provider eSIMs are more expensive per gigabyte but let you arrive online, which is useful for booking a ride from the airport. Check your handset supports eSIM before relying on it.

Cambodia is one of the cheapest mobile-data markets in the region. Monthly packages generally run $5 to $12 for tens of gigabytes, often split between an 'any-network' allowance and larger app-specific quotas for social apps and video. Read the split before assuming the headline number applies to everything.

Calls and SMS inside Cambodia are inexpensive, and most people use messaging apps regardless. Roaming charges from a foreign SIM are dramatically more expensive than a local line, so buying locally almost always pays for itself on a trip longer than two days.

Fibre broadband is widely available in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Battambang, Kampot and Sihanoukville. Residential plans start around $12 to $20 a month for basic speeds and $25 to $45 for faster tiers, usually with free installation on a contract. Speeds in the capital are good; reliability during heavy rain can dip.

Power cuts are the practical constraint for remote work rather than bandwidth. Cafés and co-working spaces in the main cities have generators or battery backup, and a mobile hotspot on a second network is the standard fallback for anyone on video calls.