Its incredibly easy – and incredibly cheap – to get a local sim card for your iPhone or Android phone at Phnom Penh airport: here’s how.
Following Travelfish’s advice to get a CellCard sim card when in Phnom Penh, I was pleasantly surprised to see a Cellcard retail booth selling sim cards as soon as I walked out of the luggage collection area at Phnom Penh airport. The Cellcard booth is one of numerous telecoms companies with outlets in this small corridor before you get into the Arrivals zone proper. I stuck with what Travelfish suggested so I can’t say anything about the other companies.
Getting the Cellcard card sim was simple. Hand over your passport for a photocopy, let the guy install the sim and set it up for you on your iPhone or Android phone, and pay the tariff. It’s $1 for the sim and $2 for a week’s internet access – 600mb of data – which should be fine for using Google Maps on your phone and checking email. If you’re staying longer than a week or think you’ll be using data heavily you can get 2 gigs of data valid for a month for $5
You can see all the internet tariffs below. If you want to make calls or send texts you’ll need to pay a bit more to top up credit for that – I didn’t get the exact figure but a couple of dollars should be plenty unless you plan to call overseas.
And that’s it really. It couldn’t be easier to get the sim and then you’re set up as soon as you arrive rather than having to spend time going to one of the telecom retail outlets in town.
