(Business in Cameroon) - In 2017, the volume of phone messages in Cameroon exceeded the symbolic threshold of 20 billion reaching 23.18 billion SMS, the telecom regulatory authority (ART) revealed in its 2017 report.

“This rapid expansion of SMS is the result of the improvement of abundant strategies implemented by operators in their commercial policies concerning this service,” explained ART. As well, in response to the penetration of internet messaging services (social networks, VOIP, messaging, etc.), operators are multiplying commercial actions (bundles and abundant offers) that can encourage the development of basic services. The SMS service has therefore become an offer well promoted: call plan + SMS bonus; data plan + SMS bonus.

The share of intra-network traffic (e.g. SMS from one Orange subscriber to another Orange subscriber, or from one MTN subscriber to another MTN subscriber...) is still increasing and now reaches 99.46% of total volume. The volume of SMS traffic sent to other national networks (e. g. SMS from an MTN subscriber to Nexttel) is only 0.46%, while the volume of international traffic is almost zero, accounting for only 0.08% of the total volume.

S.A