Mobile telephony sector: ART threatens sanctions up to and including withdrawal of approval

ART headquarters building in Yaoundé

Faced with the "persistent degradation of the quality of electronic communications services in Cameroon", the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART) served 13 formal notices to Orange Cameroon, MTN Cameroon, NEXTELL and CAMTEL in November 2022, after several missions to evaluate the monitoring systems of the quality of service offered to subscribers by these telecommunications operators. These formal notices were accompanied by a deadline for the implementation of corrective measures. To date, only CAMTEL, Orange and MTN have committed to "priority actions" to remedy the shortcomings identified, including "a cumulative investment of 156 billion in 2023 for the extension of network coverage and improvement of quality of service," said the director of the ART, Professor Philemon ZO'O ZAME, in a statement issued on February 13 To compel these operators to respect their commitments, the ART's CEO said that multidisciplinary technical control teams are currently on the ground to carry out performance checks on mobile networks, in correlation with the performance indicators contained in the specifications.