| > East Asia skipped wired internet completely and went straight from nothing to mobile. In those countries you mentioned yes. Cambodia isn't representative for SEA, it's a very poor and poorly managed country. Go to Malaysia and Singapore and physical infrastructure is common. > That's the expensive foreigner price.
> Thailand is a bit more pricey for farang Not sure why you are paying "foreigner price" for sim-card/data in Thailand or Cambodia. You can just go to any shop and you will be charged the same price as anyone else. > There's no way that SE Asians would pay Western prices for internet, so the price comes down. A few other things to note: * There is no net neutrality in these countries, data packages includes 'unlimited' or big data allowances restricted to Facebook/Youtube. * Data connection is great in cities like Phnom Penh but as soon as you get out on the countryside you are back to a slow 3G connection (improving though). So: it's a lot cheaper to build infrastructure for a limited area. * Cambodia is a very flat country making it a lot easier to build mobile networks compared to some European countries or in the US. |
Also, people don't seem to have any objections to mobile towers being built near them. In the UK & Australia there's a lot of NIMBYism and fear about mobile towers being built near schools (especially). It can get really expensive to build a tower in a rich suburb.