As a photographer, one of the first worries I had going to Cambodia was how to get online and be able to upload my photos. Though using a Mac and OSX makes life easier in many ways, I worried that getting a 3G mobile solution could prove difficult. And finding any usable info on the matter online turned out no results. After visiting numerous internet service providers in Phnom Penh, to my great surprise, Cambodia actually has many vendors supporting Apple products, but in various degrees. Most work great in the capital, Phnom Penh. However, only Metfone provides high speed wireless network (UMTS/HSDPA) in most of Cambodia. They also support Mac. Unfortunately, I found that there are a few things you should learn before you race out and buy a Metfone USB-modem and a suitable data plan. You need to bring you passport to buy the SIM-card!

Choosing a USB-modem

First of all, buying the modem is done in an official Metfone store. They can be found in most large cities and provincial towns all over Cambodia. As in most places in Cambodia you will be greeted with smiles and politeness. English speaking staff and vast technical knowledge is a seldom found trade outside of Phnom Penh, which is why I am making this guide, so you will hopefully not need support buying or using your modem. Metfone offers two modems: A 3.5Mbps modem (referred to as the old one) for 35$ and a 7.2Mbps modem (referred to as the new one) for 45$. The obvious choice, at least from Metfone’s point of view, is that you want the fastest model. However, at the moment of writing, you cannot get any more than 2-3Mbps anywhere outside of Phnom Penh. Figuratively speaking, you have the option of buying a moto that can run 30mph or a moto that can run 70mph, but outside Phnom Penh you will only be able to drive as fast as 20-30mph. I do not foresee that this will change anytime soon, especially when Metfone is the only one providing the service outside Phnom Penh. Save the 10$ and use them to purchase credits for your modem instead.

Choosing a data-plan

The next thing you need to think about is your data plan. You can only buy prepaid credits. You then have to insert these to your account. If you do not use internet for anything else than sending email and surfing, I would advise you to go with the LT12 plan. It costs 12$ and with it you get 4GB of data. If you like to use it like me and upload large photos or if you want to download or stream movies, I would advise you to go with the LT20 plan. At 20$ you get 12GB of data. If you do not choose any plan, you will pay 0.7cent/MB (20$/6GB) You can read more about the plans here ‘click’ Regardless of your choice of data plan, your credits will last 30 days and unused data will be lost. If you use up your data before the 30 days, you simply buy more data. I have experienced a clerk telling me that you can only get 12GB data once a month regardless of you buying LT20 twice. This is not true. But I would advice against putting in more credits to your account than needed for your chosen data plan, as remaining data will be lost after 30 days. Instead, fill up as you go along.

Installing the software

Installing the proper drivers is amazingly easy. Simply insert the USB-modem into your Mac. A disk icon will appear in Finder called ‘Metfone 3G’ and within it a package also called ‘Metfone 3G’. Double click on it and follow the instructions.

(This step is for information purposes only and is not needed to install the software):
If you go to ‘System Preferences’ and choose ‘Network’

…you will now see four new network settings defined by Metfone. It is important that you do not delete or alter these. If you do so, your modem will not work properly. I tried myself to bypass Metfone’s software because sharing network is useless using it. I ended up reinstalling the Metfone software.

Putting in credits to your account

Open the Metfone 3G application (located in your ‘Applications’ folder in ‘Finder’). Do not click the ‘Connect’ button yet!
Instead, click the USSD icon at the top, replace ‘PIN’ with the code from the purchased credit slip (do not replace anything else than PIN as the remaining characters are needed) and click ‘Send’. In case you need to charge more than one credit slip to your account, simply repeat this process.

If you have done as I have described above, you will get a message telling you how much you have recharged as well as your current balance. Unfortunately, it also clears the field where you put in your code. Enter *197* Enter code here# in the field.

Selecting a data-plan

The following steps must be done every time you recharge your account with credits. – Again, do not click the ‘Connect’ button yet! I tried once to get my local Metfone store to do this for me. It resulted in not getting the right data plan and only getting 6GB data for 20$. It took me two days and spending three to four hours a day in the store, waiting and smiling before they admitted an error was made by Metfone and I got what I paid for. I find that generally you will seldom get your way by being angry and yelling at the clerks. This is especially true in Cambodia. If you start yelling or scolding people, they will shut down, ignore you and you will get absolutely nowhere. So be patient and polite if you encounter problems with your modem and require assistance from the store – even if the problem is on Metfone’s part.

To get started, click the ‘SMS’ button at the top and click ‘New’

Send ltes to 135

After a few seconds you will get this pop-up message.

After a few seconds more you will receive a new text-mesage. Click ‘Reply’

Send Yes to 135

After a few seconds, you will get this pop-up message.

After a few seconds more you will receive a new text-mesage confirming your change to LT Easy package. Click ‘Reply’

Send lt20 to 135 (If you want LT12 put that in instead)

After a few seconds you will get this pop-up message.

After a few seconds more you will receive a new text-mesage. Click ‘Reply’

Send yes to 135

After a few seconds you will get this pop-up message.

After a few seconds more you will receive a new text-mesage confirming your change to LT20 package.

You are now ready to go online. Remember, every time you recharge your account with credits, you have to reselect LT Easy and the desired data plan.

Connecting

To go online, click the ‘Internet’ icon (default when you open the application) and click ‘Connect’

A pop-up window will appear. By default, there is not a code you need to write. Simply click ‘OK’.

After a few seconds you will see ‘Status’ says ‘Connected’ and at the right of ‘Send’ and ‘Receive’ the numbers will be running. You are now online and ready to surfe, skype, email or whatever you do online.

Keeping track of your data usage

Running out of data in the middle of uploading photos or Skyping with the family is a drag, especially out of opening hours from your local Metfone credit pusher. In other words, keeping track of your data usage is a good idea and the tools for it is build in the Metfone software.
Click the ‘Dial Record’ icon and ‘Show Statistics’

I mostly use the ‘Yearly’ statistics rapport to check my usage. If you multiply your ‘Uploads’ and ‘Downloads’ you will end up with total data usage. The reason I do not use the ‘Daily’ or ‘Weekly’ statistics, is because I do not really recharge it on the 1st of every month and I tend to refill my credits more than once a month.

In order to ensure my statistics are accurate and reliable, I reset them every time i have refilled credits. To do so, go back by clicking the ‘Go Back’ button.

And click the ‘Reset Record’ button.

Other useful knowledge

At the top of the Metfone application, just below the icons, there are some small symbols that can prove quite useful to know about, when you are online.

1) The connection bars: Indicate the strength of your connection. This can have a huge impact on your download/upload speed.
2) Modem indicator: Green means your modem is connected. Red means it is not.
3) SIM indicator: Green means your SIM is working as it should and is connected. Red means it is not.
4) Connection type: I have only seen it switching between HSDPA and UMTS, although EDGE and GPRS (if supported by the modem), would be an option as well.
Let me explain what you can use this information for:
1 and 4 can be crucial to what you want to do online. E.g. if your ‘Connection bars’ say you have a good strong signal and your ‘Connection type’ is HSDPA, you should be able to Skype with video in both directions. If on the other hand your ‘Connection bars’ still say you have a good strong signal but your ‘Connection type’ says UMTS you will at best be able to do Skype with audio. There are many variables to this: The weather can have a huge impact on your signal, and even a petrol engine without proper shielded electrical-circuits running outside your window can ruin the signal completely. But it is an excellent indicator of why your connection is behaving as it does.
2 and 3 can help you if nothing works at all. You can use these in the process of elimination when trying to figure out what is wrong.

Common issues

If you cannot get online, 99% of the time it would be due to either expired credits or no more credits or data. I have experienced this in two ways: If the upload/download counter seems to have slipped into a coma, but everything else works as it should, you need to check your statistics, as you have probably used all your data and you need to see the credits pusher. The other way (which I have only experienced once) was that whenever I tried to connect, everything was running as it was supposed to, but just before actual connection, I got a pop-up window that said ‘No connection to PPP-server’. After a refill of credits, everything was back to normal.
Once-in-a-while you will lose connection and see a window with ‘No connection to PPP-server’. Usually, reconnecting will do the trick.
You might also get a pop-up window saying just ‘Connection lost’. Here, reconnecting will also do the trick. If you get this a lot, try disconnecting, pull out the modem, shut down and re-open the Metfone application, reinsert the modem and reconnect. This should do the trick.
If nothing works with your modem, a solution might be to just reinstall the damned software and in the process reconfigure the four network settings controlled by Metfone’s software (before doing this scratch down or do a screen dump of your statistics, as they will be lost in the process). Go to your ‘Applications’ folder and locate the ‘Uninstall Metfone 3G’ application and double click it. Follow the instructions, unplug/replug the modem and install the software all over again.
(You will not lose your credits or data plan settings in the process.)

I briefly mentioned this earlier: Unfortunately, you cannot successfully use the Metfone solution if you want to share your network as it is right now. You will be able to set it up, but both connected devices will be unreasonably slow compared to your connection speed, and you will have to take turns loading pages. The reason for this seems to be in the Metfone software and I have yet to figure out how to bypass it. When or if I figure out how to do this, I will add it to this article. If you should hold the solution, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 
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