(Business in Cameroon) - In a press release issued on August 13, 2021, MTN Cameroon announced that it requested a license from the telecom regulator to deploy the 5G technology in Cameroon. "Believing that everyone is entitled to the benefits of modern connected life, MTN Cameroon is currently implementing high-impact projects (…) including experimentation of the 5G technology, whose license request has been filed with the telecom regulator to give Cameroonians access to modern information technology and communication tools," the operator wrote.
If successful, MTN Cameroon’s project will revolutionalize the country’s telecom sector owing to the numerous opportunities offered by the 5G technology. "The first advantage of 5G is the considerable improvement in connection speed. It allows for even faster connection speeds, which is ten times faster than the 4G. Another advantage of the 5G is the reduction of latency, which is the waiting time between the moment you hit a command button and the moment the instruction is translated on the screen. That latency period could go from 10 ms for the 4G to 1ms for the 5G (...) The quality of streaming videos (4K and 8K videos particularly) will also be better. (...) Another important advantage of the 5G is that it supports a higher density of connected devices. It is estimated that the massive connectivity of the 5G technology will allow a 10x increase in the current connection density. So the 5G technology could support at least one million connected devices per square meter," Les Echos Solutions wrote on January 21, 2021.
However, to fulfill its ambition of becoming the first operator to deploy the 5G technology in Cameroon, MTN will have to convince the government about its ability to do so. "It will be profitable for MTN Cameroon to deploy the 5G technology because it will sell more data bundles, particularly in Daoula and Yaounde, the two main telecom markets in the country. However, will the government, which is concerned about an equitable development of its territory, agree to such license request while the 4,3, and 2 G technologies are not yet available all over the country and the service quality is still poor ?" telecom experts wonder.
BRM