Clients Stories:

Village Phone Operator at Siem Reap province

Mr.Ly Van, Kantreang, Angkrong, phone 011 542 334.
Mr.Ly Van’s business is on a fairly large paved street, in the village of Kantreang. It took us 45min on a motorbike to reach it.

Mr.Van owns a stand right on the main road, along with many other similar stands. There are drinks, cigarettes, other dry goods on 3 regular size tables, as well as one table of bananas. The tables are shaded through umbrellas. One of these umbrellas is a fairly dusty, aged, blue, red and with, with the Nokia/Mfone’s logo, and Cambodia Village Phone logo.
Mr.Van’s wife is in the back (under other umbrella, this one black from having caught fire, yet, still providing shade) frying bananas. (which were very tasteful). Mr.Van has 6 children, the oldest being 26. His oldest daughter helps him run the business (she herself, is married, and has an 8 year old, and 3 year old). Mr.Van’s mother in law owns a restaurant, with a TV in the back. They all live within 15min walk from the stand. I don’t believe that the family had other businesses, but it was hard to confirm.

He purchased his phone kit about one year ago. From his original phone kit, I could now see the umbrella, and he showed me the phone, a nokia 1110. There was no advertizing signs, nor call logs used. (although these were part of the kit given to him). He did not use a loan to buy his phone kit one year ago. He paid about $80 for the kit.

Mr.Van is not very happy with the business; the main reason being that the network is down very often, especially after 5pm. Also, since the network used (Mfone GSM) is not very common in the area, most calls are roaming calls, which are more expansive.Mr Van gets between 5 to 10 clients a day.

He gets his airtime from the stand right next to him. He usually gets $5 increments. (there are $2, $5, $10, $50 dollar cards). Sometimes, he sells airtime himself.

One or two additional people in the village are using Mfone and sharing their phone. Mr Van is not sure however. The Mfone network is being used however, since the person next door sells airtime.  

VF client: Nhel Oul.

The house is on a dirt road, about 2km from the main road. It seems to be at the entrance of a groupement of houses. The house looks fairly big. It is a cement house, fully built. Inside, there is a TV, with a cable hanging in the middle of the room. There is no sign saying that a village phone business is being offered here.  The VF client is not here, and we are being received by her daughter. Her mother is a client of VF, and has been for the last 7 to 8 years. She currently has a $2500 loan (on 2 years, with monthly installments of $640.13 paid on the 5th of the month, for a total repayment of $3140.13, started on July 5th 2007). Her family business is to trade sand and bricks. Her interest rate is 2% flat. The mother has 3 sons, and 2 daughters. Age 10 to 8. This daughter has gone to school until 11th grade, and not she stays in the house and helps her mother. They do not have electricity, but have bought a generator. That’s how she recharges the phone. They do not “sell” electricity to other people in the community, but some other neighbors with a generator do. They paid cash for the phone, 2 months ago. She gets 5 to 7 clients a day.

Garment worker existing VPO.

This client was found by Luon (CVP staff). We are going to meet her during her lunch break, at the garment factory.
The kit was sold in Dec. 07. He is a construction worker, she is a garment worker. She also bakes cookies that she sells to her colleagues at the garment factory. They have 2 daugthers, 13 and 10, who go to school.
He has the phone with him, and does not have airtime at the moment (at the end of the month, Mfone subtract the $4 of monthly fee).
They bought the phone 2 months ago, from their brother in law. She makes some profit with the phone. She gets around 10 customers every day, mainly colleagues at the garment factory. Most of the calls are to reach relatives and friends. It is rarely for business calls.
Customers really prefer to call through Mfone it easy to be connected and cheap  
They do not have electricity at their house, and use a battery recharger. (a used battery, that they bought for $5). They have been using the same battery for the past 3 years. 
She is happy with her job at the garment factory. It is only 10km from her house, and it only costs 500 real for the factory truck to pick her up.  Previously, she worked for another factory in Phnom Penh.