We now know the origins of the disruptions recorded for several days in the provision of internet and mobile telephone services in Cameroon.
In a press release published on September 11, 2024, the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART) clears customs from telecoms operators, and calls into question the difficulties in supplying their various sites with electrical energy and fuel. “(…) It appears, at the end of the checks carried out by the ART teams, that this disruption is caused by an insufficient supply of electrical energy as observed in their current networks, and the difficulty of supply of the various technical sites of passive fuel infrastructure operators, especially in our large metropolis, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the multiple ruptures of fiber optic cables on certain segments of the national network,” indicates the regulator.
This outing ART comes after the publication, on August 28, 2024, of a press release from the International Consumers’ Association (Asicom), protesting against the poor quality of internet and communication services among mobile operators Orange and MTN Cameroon, in particular. Asicom also denounces “the silence of the companies” mentioned above on the subject, and requests the intervention of the Cameroonian public authorities, with a view to “urgently calling out these companies and sanctioning them for their failings”. Although it is difficult to establish a cause and effect link between the two aforementioned outputs, we can observe that the causes of the disturbances mentioned by the ART have been the same for years. Without definitive solutions being found.
This time, the regulator says it has received instructions from the government to carry out an audit of the national fiber optic network. The first results of this work still in progress, we learn, “show that this national infrastructure (…) is in a state of continuous degradation, and the current conditions of its maintenance need to be reassessed.” (Our loose translation)
Source: Investir au Cameroon