Send SMS to Cambodia
from $0.0120/msg

Reach 18 million mobile subscribers across Cambodia's four major operators—Metfone (40%), Smart Axiata (38%), Cellcard (15%), and Seatel (7%)—at $0.0120 USD per SMS. no phone binding, no national ID upload, no company registryuments required at signup. Median latency 62 ms. Delivery success 97.9%. Pay instantly with Bitcoin, USDT (TRC-20 preferred), Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero, or Solana. Minimum $5 top-up.

Why Khmer Script Encoding Cuts Your Cambodia SMS Budget in Half

Khmer script—Cambodia's primary writing system—triggers UCS-2 encoding at the operator and gateway level. Under GSM-7 encoding (standard for English and Latin characters), a single SMS segment carries 160 characters. Under UCS-2, that falls to 70 characters per segment. A message written entirely in Khmer that occupies 210 characters will consume 3 SMS units instead of the 2 units needed for a 320-character English message. Billing is per segment, so Khmer campaigns incur 2–3× the segment overhead of ASCII equivalents.

Example: A promotional message reading "ស្វាគមន៍មកកាន់ ការលក់ដ៏ល្អ 50% ដក ថ្ងៃនេះ" (approximately "Welcome to Our Great 50% Sale Today") spans 40 characters in Khmer script. In GSM-7 encoding, this would fit in a single 160-character segment. In UCS-2, it consumes 1 full segment (70 characters max). The same semantic meaning in English—"Welcome to Our Great 50% Sale Today"—fits easily in English (36 characters). The Khmer version and English version each cost 1 unit from smsroute.cc. However, longer messages—say 150 Khmer characters—split as follows: English equivalent might be 100 characters (1 segment in GSM-7, $0.0120 USD). The Khmer equivalent, at 150 characters, requires 3 segments in UCS-2, costing $0.0360 USD. Budget, design, and test with your actual message content before large campaigns.

GSM-7 vs. UCS-2: Character Budget and Encoding Behavior

smsroute.cc handles all encoding negotiation with Cambodian carriers automatically. When you send an SMS containing Khmer characters, the gateway detects the script and switches to UCS-2. When you send English, Latin, or other GSM-7-compatible scripts, single-segment messages up to 160 characters are billed as 1 unit. Khmer messages are split at 70-character boundaries.

Long-message concatenation (multiple segments chained together with UDH headers) is supported by all four major Cambodian operators. A 140-character Khmer message is billed as 2 segments; a 280-character Khmer message is billed as 4 segments. Mixed-script messages (e.g., "Visit example.com ស្វាគមន៍" — English + Khmer) trigger UCS-2 encoding for the entire message; all text is encoded under the same ruleset to preserve display integrity.

Pricing Comparison: smsroute.cc vs. Global Competitors

The following table compares per-SMS pricing to Cambodia across major A2P SMS platforms. All prices reflect standard rates (January 2025) and do not include volume discounts, enterprise agreements, or surcharges.

smsroute.cc's $0.0120 USD per-SMS price is 57% below Twilio's $0.0279 list rate for Cambodia. smsroute.cc achieves this via direct carrier peering agreements and crypto-only payment (eliminating card processor fees and KYC overhead). No monthly minimums, no account setup fees, no API tiers. Pay only for messages sent.

Mobile Operator Reach and Interconnection

Metfone (40% market share): Cambodia's largest operator, majority-owned by Vietnam's Viettel. Excellent coverage in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and secondary cities. smsroute.cc maintains direct interconnection agreements ensuring rapid delivery and high reliability.

Smart Axiata (38% market share): Second-largest operator, part of Malaysia's Axiata Group. Strong presence nationwide, particularly urban and peri-urban zones. Direct carrier handshake with smsroute.cc for optimized routing.

Cellcard (15% market share): Third-largest operator, owned by Cambodia's Mfone Group. Serves competitive consumer and enterprise segments. smsroute.cc's platform reaches Cellcard subscribers via established peering arrangements.

Seatel (7% market share): Smallest of the four major operators. Niche coverage in rural and remote provinces. smsroute.cc includes Seatel in routing algorithms to ensure comprehensive geographic reach.

All four operators observe the Cambodian Law on Personal Data Protection (2021) and require evidence of recipient consent for marketing campaigns. smsroute.cc records consent proof and sender ID registration via the PTA-affiliated mobile operators.

How to Send SMS to Cambodia in 3 Steps

Step 1: Create Account — Visit smsroute.cc and sign up. no phone binding, no national ID upload, no company registryuments required. Account is activated instantly.

Step 2: Top Up Wallet — Deposit a minimum of $5 via Bitcoin, USDT (TRC-20 preferred), Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero, or Solana. No credit cards, no SEPA transfers, no bank wires. Funds are credited to your account balance within minutes.

Step 3: Send SMS — Use the smsroute.cc Dashboard, REST API, or Webhook to send SMS in E.164 format. Cambodian mobile numbers follow the pattern +855 7X XXXXXX, +855 8X XXXXXX, or +855 9X XXXXXX (8-digit subscriber number). You are charged $0.0120 USD per SMS segment.

REST API Example (curl):

Python SDK Example:

Both examples target Cambodian E.164 numbers. The Khmer message in the Python example will be automatically detected and encoded as UCS-2 by the gateway, consuming 1 SMS segment (70 Khmer characters). Delivery status and latency data are returned in the response JSON.

package main

import (
    "bytes"
    "encoding/json"
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "net/http"
    "os"
)

func main() {
    payload, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]string{
        "to":   "+8555551234567",
        "from": "smsroute",
        "text": "Your verification code is 384921",
    })

    req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST",
        "https://api.smsroute.cc/v1/messages",
        bytes.NewBuffer(payload))
    req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("SMSROUTE_API_KEY"))
    req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

    resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
    if err != nil { panic(err) }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    fmt.Println(string(body))
}

import requests

api_key = "YOUR_API_KEY"
headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

payload = {
    "to": "+855912345678",
    "message": "ស្វាគមន៍ដល់សេវាកម្មរបស់យើង",
    "sender_id": "CompanyName"
}

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.smsroute.cc/send",
    headers=headers,
    json=payload
)

print(response.json())

curl -X POST https://api.smsroute.cc/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "+855712345678",
    "message": "Welcome to our service!",
    "sender_id": "CompanyName"
  }'

import fetch from "node-fetch";

const apiKey = process.env.SMSROUTE_API_KEY;

const res = await fetch("https://api.smsroute.cc/v1/messages", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    to: "+8555551234567",
    from: "smsroute",
    text: "Your verification code is 384921",
  }),
});

console.log(await res.json());

<?php
$apiKey = getenv('SMSROUTE_API_KEY');

$payload = json_encode([
    'to'   => '+8555551234567',
    'from' => 'smsroute',
    'text' => 'Your verification code is 384921',
], JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);

$ch = curl_init('https://api.smsroute.cc/v1/messages');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
        'Content-Type: application/json',
    ],
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $payload,
]);

echo curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);