CAMTEL GM inspects Limbe optic fibre landing station

The General Manager of Cameroon Telecommunications Company Ltd, CAMTEL, David Nkoto Emane, on Friday, August 1, 2014, visited Limbe to inspect the Limbe Fibre Optic Landing Station recently handed over to the Government by MTN Cameroon.

The Limbe station is the second Landing Station in Cameroon after that in Douala.

The drive by the Government to get Cameroon hooked onto the fibre optic cable line was taken a few years back and MTN Cameroon was handed the contract which got WACS to do the job.

The WACS sub-marine cable line links Europe to South Africa via the Atlantic Ocean and measures approximately 14,500 km. The investment is mostly supported by key South African companies like MTN Group, Telkom SA, Neotel, Broadband Infraco and Vodacom as well as the Republic of South Africa.

The job entailed WACS linking Cameroon to this global network of undersea cable lines. To do this, WACS had to construct two hubs or stations: one in Douala and another in Limbe.

These stations, known as landing stations, are the centres where the transmission of electronic information (telephone, internet and others) between Cameroon and the rest of the world is going to be regulated. There are the centres where the fibre optic line emanating from the sea is connected to the fibre optic lines in Cameroon.

One of the officials in the CAMTEL GM’s delegation to Limbe, confided to The Post that the Government intends to have another landing station in Kribi. He said it is to further boost the capacity for carrying information between Cameroon and the rest of the world and also make information flow more robust.

He, however, insisted that the GM’s visit was unofficial and that an official ceremony to formally get the public informed about the new development was being planned for the days ahead and shall be presided at by the Minister of Post and Telecommunication, Jean Pierre Biyiti Bi-Essam.

The GM, who was accompanied to Limbe by MTN officials, was led to the Landing Station located at Batoke by the SDO of Fako Division, Zang III.