Cambodian 4G mobile operator South East Asia Telecom Group (SEATEL) has enlarged its existing spectrum holdings with a 2600MHz band concession, as the sole winner in a ‘beauty contest’ (or ‘comparative tender’) style auction held on 16 December, the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications Cambodia (MPTC) confirmed on its website yesterday. In announcing the preliminary results of the auction, the MPTC noted that SEATEL has been awarded a 2×10MHz allocation (2510MHz-2520MHz/2630MHz-2640MHz), whilst the other 2×5MHz 4G spectrum block available at auction – 829.5MHz-834.5MHZ/874.5MHz-879.5MHz – remains unallocated due to lack of bids. As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, the government decided to re-auction the two 4G concessions in the 800MHz and 2600MHz bands after the original licence holders failed to utilise them.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database says that SEATEL launched commercial 800MHz-based 4G LTE services in Cambodia in July 2015, re-farming the legacy CDMA-800 frequencies which it inherited via the takeover of GT-Tell (Excell) two years earlier. Investors in SEATEL include Hong Kong’s First Oriental Holdings Limited and Sun Bright International Holdings.