State-owned telecommunications company Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel) has announced a plan to emerge as the national and sub-regional leader in broadband services and digital transformation.

Although Camtel enjoys just 3% share of Cameroon’s telecommunications market - overtaken by rivals MTN Cameroon, Orange Cameroun and Viettel (Nexttel), its management is determined to gain lost ground.

Following a review of its performance in 2020, management is focusing on customer centricity and change management as its core strategy.

In addition to the roll out of a plan to boost its fibre optic backbone and the deployment of the WTTX project based on affordable, ultra-broadband Wi-Fi to households, Camtel has also entered into partnerships with telcos in neighbouring Chad, specifically SOS Télécoms and SOTEL.

Camtel’s management believes the company is on track, adding that last year it successfully commissioned a Tier 3 datacentre and secured three concession agreements to operate fixed and mobile electronic communication networks.

In addition to mobile CT-Phone based on CDMA technology and landline connections, Camtel will soon launch its mobile network called Blue.

The company has also worked on increasing its subscriber base and revenue, bettering overall customer satisfaction, and recovering outstanding debts from public and private institutions.

Claude Bouli, Director of Management Control, Norms and Quality at Camtel, said the company implemented a quality management system and obtained an ISO 9001:2015 certification on its wholesale business segment to placate operators and ISPs (Camtel manages the country’s lone optic fibre backbone).

Other internal structural changes were made. “This has led to an improvement of about 4% in customer satisfaction and more efficient processes as compared to 2019. The challenge now is to finalise the implementation of such systems for both mobile and fixed-line networks,” said Bouli.

Judith Yah Sunday, General Manager of Camtel, said, “These results speak of a formidable synergy between top management leadership, staff involvement, and customer loyalty.”

Since 2018, Camtel’s long-term plan has been aimed at: stabilisation and revival (2019), consolidation and expansion (2020-2022), and leadership in digital transformation in the sub-region (2023-2025).