(Business in Cameroon) - The Cameroon subsidiary of Orange's subscribers were once again unable to make calls, send SMS or conduct mobile money operations for most of the day on October 17, 2017.
The network operator revealed in an official statement published in the evening that it was due to a new disconnection from the optical fiber by Camtel, the public operator which holds the monopoly over Cameroon’s optical fiber.
Yet, after the first disconnection of Orange Cameroun, last October 6, Camtel was recalled to order by the telecommunication regulatory body. Indeed, in a mail on October 9, the regulatory body let Camtel know that, according to the current telecommunication regulations, no network operator can interrupt the interconnection without the telecommunication regulatory body’s (ART) formal notice.
Defying ART’s warning, Camtel took its conflict with Orange Cameroon, which started some days ago, up a notch. This conflict is about an outstanding debt of CFA1.6 billion that Orange Cameroun is denying.
“Orange Cameroun owes us more than one billion Cfa under our partnership. Despite many notices to fulfill its obligations, our partner did not think it should do so. So, after many warnings, we decided to interrupt our services on optical fiber. After this, Orange repaid a portion of the debt, CFA700 million. We are then waiting for the remaining sum. How can Orange Cameroon deny this invoice while it made a prepayment”, Gérard Assouzo’o, Camtel marketing manager said.
BRM