AT long last passengers at Pochentong Airport have telephone sevices available

to them.

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications have begun

installing eight Telecom phoneboxes, the first one, located in the VIP lounge,

is already in service with a second, located outside, to be connected soon. The

others will be installed as renovations on the existing terminal are completed,

with two phones located in both the international departure and arrival lounges

and one in the domestic terminal.

Two payphones are mounted in

hand-sculptured wooden cabinets provided by the National Museum. The carvings

are in traditional Kymer style depicting Angkor Wat and suger-palm trees.

Users will have access to both IDD, STD and local services. Phonecards

will be available at the airport with denominations ranging from $2 to

$100.

Pochentong has never had public phones, to the frustration of many

travelers.

Installation of the phones is part of the goverment's

attempts to increase the availability of existing land lines with 30 phoneboxes

in service already and another 20 to be installed shortly around Phnom

Penh.

The MPT has also formed a task force headed by Yourk Soboros, chief

of their Payphones Department to install and maintain the phones. They have also

produced two short videos that will be shown on Khmer television, explaining how

to properly use the phones. Mr Kriam, Cambodia's answer to Charlie Chaplin, who

featured in Untac's electoral videos last year, is the star.