(Business in Cameroon) - Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel), the public telephone company and sole landline provider in Cameroon, has just announced that it has signed a June 27, 2014 agreement with MTN Cameroon, the mobile telephone leader, “to resume partnership between the two companies”.

The State-run telephone company specifies that the agreement, “on one hand, enabled a review of debts between Camtel and MTN Cameroon and, on the other hand, also allowed Camtel to provide MTN Cameroon with fibre optic capacity to improve the quality of service for its customers.”

“One must not forget the importance of the exchanges provided for in this agreement, restoring to Camtel its federal role in telecommunications in our country. It has assumed its major role as a State entity in the development of infrastructure and telecommunications services in Cameroon,” highlighted the Camtel release, reviving the memory of the battle that has been sustained over the last few years by Orange and MTN against the fibre optic monopoly granted to Camtel.

Indeed, the two operators accused the public company not only of using prohibitive pricing to limit competitor access to its infrastructure, but also of having technology of questionable quality and limited capacity. This emancipatory attempt by telephone providers with regards to Camtel’s fibre-optics is at the heart of MTN Cameron’s construction of a land access point for the WACS’ submarine cable in Limbé in the south-west, infrastructure recently provided by Cameroon. Orange Cameroon has announced the arrival of the ACE submarine cable whose land access point is in Kribi in the south.

BRM