Failing nationwide network audits has landed Cameroon’s mobile operators in regulatory trouble, says the Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB).
The watchdog warns of a significant deterioration in the national fibre-optic backbone infrastructure solely managed by state-owned operator Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel).
A multidisciplinary inspection by the regulator across Yaounde, Douala and Bafoussam uncovered 93 compliance breaches across the country’s three mobile networks.
The regulator cited 41 shortcomings at Camtel, 29 at Orange Cameroun and 23 at MTN Cameroon.
The most severe findings were recorded against state-run Camtel, with the regulator assessing violations valued at 8.2 billion CFA francs (about 13.9million),compared to 5.8 billion CFA francs(9.8 million) for Orange Cameroun and 4.6 billion CFA francs ($7.8 million) for MTN Cameroon.
TRB says the shortcomings range from failures in equipment certification and spectrum compliance to deficiencies in network coverage and quality of service indicators.
It also highlighted concerns around second-generation (2G) and third-generation (3G) voice services, short message service (SMS) and data performance, as well as weaknesses in core network infrastructure, including availability, service continuity, redundancy and failover capabilities.
"Following these findings, TRB issued formal notices to the three mobile operators, requiring each operator concerned to implement specific corrective measures within 15 days," says Professor Philémon Zo'o Zame, director general of the TRB.
TRB further warned that it will conduct follow-up inspections to verify remediation efforts and indicated that sanctions could follow should operators fail to address the identified deficiencies.
Beyond mobile service quality concerns, the regulator's most consequential findings relate to the national fibre-optic infrastructure.
According to the regulator, the deterioration is characterised by recurring outages linked to installation and maintenance conditions, partially unavailable fibre routes and failures affecting civil engineering works and optical transmission equipment.
While MTN Cameroon and Orange Cameroun manage their own mobile infrastructure, the operators as well as internet service providers and enterprise customers rely largely on Camtel's backbone for data transmission and interconnectivity.
The operators hadn't responded to TRB at the time of publication.
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