State-owned operator Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) has signed a mobile network sharing agreement with French operator group Orange to boost service quality and narrow the gap with its larger mobile rivals.
Speaking to Developing Telecoms at the Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town this month, Camtel’s Director of Strategy, Organisation, Project and Innovation, Gilbert Ngono, explained that Camtel only launched its commercial mobile arm in 2020 after securing its licence. To expedite the development of its new mobile division, the operator has entered into a national roaming agreement.
Since entering the mobile market, the state-owned incumbent has been playing catch-up with Pan-African giants Orange and MTN, whose mobile operations have been established since the early 2000s, Ngono noted.
“We started mobile not long ago, and to close the coverage gap—while we are deploying infrastructure, which is a very capex-intensive business—we are, in the meantime, signing roaming agreements with other operators,” Ngono said.
“We began with MTN and are now finalising an agreement with Orange to cover areas where we are not currently present. As we deploy and grow, we will gradually phase out the agreement in each area we expand to.”
Ngono did not disclose when the network-sharing agreement will come into effect, as details are still being finalised. The agreement will primarily benefit rural councils in Cameroon, unlike urban locations such as the capital Yaoundé and Douala, the country’s largest city, where roaming is unnecessary. Urban areas currently make up 70% of Camtel’s mobile subscriber base.
Ngono stated that Camtel holds under 5% of Cameroon’s CFA800 billion mobile market but expressed confidence that, with network expansion plans, the operator would reach a 10% market share within the next two years.