Declining telecom service blamed on poor resources

The poor quality of telecommunications services observed, in recent times, in Cameroon has been attributed to the inadequacy of equipment used for the transmission of 4G and the absence of appropriate regulatory text for same.

This information was disclosed during a week-long working visit to Douala by the Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Board, TRB, from 1 to 6 February 2016.

The Douala field trip and working sessions between a battery of senior staff of TRB led by the Board’s Director General, Jean-Louis Beh Mengue and representatives of organisations and associations of stakeholders of the telecommunications sector, came on the heels of rising nationwide debate “fueled by heightened competition in the market and the ensuing pursuit of positioning by operators” following the development of electronic communication in Cameroon and the world at large.

The sector’s development has given room for much questioning about “the introduction of 4G in Cameroon, the quality of service offered to the public, the identification of subscribers, the protection of consumers, just to name a few”.

On Introduction Of 4G

4G is the term used to designate the fourth generation of standards for mobile telephony. It is a further stage in the evolution of technologies that moved from 2G (whose standard, designated by the term “GSM” was designed primarily to provide voice and SMS services) to 3G (whose standard, designated by the term “UMTS” was developed to provide mainly voice, data transmission and high- speed internet services).

According to the Director General of TRB, in order to enjoy optimum benefit from the 4G which “allows users to have ‘mobile high-speed broadband’, which means very high quality communication with speeds much higher than 3G’s (about 10 times the possible rate in 3G), the 4G Network requires the employment of a totally, new infrastructure.”

Jean-Louis Beh Mengue admitted that “with the transition of networks from the 2nd to the 3rd generation, we have observed a declining quality of service.”

Some major causes pointed out by the DG are: “The resources previously meant for voice (2G) now used to transmit the 4G, which saturates the channels; unstable power energy provided for the operators facilities; change in the dynamics of traffic after the launching of 3G causing sudden congestion in many links; great dependence of 3G network to the optical fibre transmission medium; and chronic bandwidth deficit and in particular the insufficient optical fiber for urban and interurban links.”

In relation to the optical fibre network coverage, the DG disclosed that of “the estimated 25.000km to 30.000km needed to be connected in Cameroon, only about 6000 km has so far been covered”.

He put the blame on the legislation which provides that only CAMTEL has the right to install optical fibre equipment in the country. For this reason, he added, other operators such as MTN who had begun work in this regard were asked to stop work.

He, however, mentioned that negotiations are on-going to allow other operators place optical fibre equipment on locations not yet covered by CAMTEL.

The Director General of TRB refuted “allegations raised mostly by the press that telephone cost in Cameroon is higher than that of neighbouring countries.”

To him, TRB has constantly been “streamlining prices applied by operators, which resulted in a drop in telecommunications rates (500 FCFA in 2001 to less than 60FCFA in 2015)”

Jean- Louis Beh Mengue equally dissipated with dexterity allegations contained in the recent CONAC report that it is with the complicity of the Telecommunications Regulatory Board, that telecommunication operators owe the state some 17 billion FCFA.

He used the occasion of his visit to Douala to strongly condemn the activities of the Islamic terrorist sect, Boko Haram. “Our country is experiencing difficult times for almost two years now. The Islamic sect Boko Haram by its intolerable actions in the Northern part of our beautiful country has created a psychosis, putting the population in a state of permanent alert. We condemn such heinous acts that we qualify as barbaric,” Jean Louis Beh Mengue stressed.