R OYAL Millicom Co Ltd was granted a license to operate a cellular phone network on

May 10 and plans to start calling on potential customers later this year.

The joint venture between the Luxembourg-based Millicom International Cellular and

the Royal Group of Companies Ltd will be Cambodia's fourth mobile phone network but

the first to offer the global system mobile (GSM).

$60 million will be initially invested, said Phil Dunglinson, Millicom regional business

manager Asia. The network should be operating by the end of the year in Phnom Penh,

and to the rest of the country some time later.

GSM offers roaming, he said, which enables the customers to use the same phone while

traveling in other countries.

For example, if a customer from Cambodia is in Vietnam and someone calls from Thailand

the call will still go through. The Royal Millicom customer pays for the long distance

charge from Cambodia to where they are.

The caller will be charged for the call from Thailand to Cambodia and the Royal Millicom

customer will pay for the long distance charge from Cambodia to Vietnam.

"Good communications are important for businesses considering investing in Cambodia

and GSM will help the country," Meng Kith, the chairman and CEO of Royal Group

of Companies said.

He said other advantages included better speech quality and protection from eavesdroppers.

There was a market for a new mobile phone system, Meng Kith said, adding they will

concentrate on customer service, reliability and performance. He said the connection

fee, administration and call charges have not yet been set but will be competitive.