(Business in Cameroon) - VIETTEL, the Vietnamese telecommunication operator which operates in Cameroon under the name Nexttel since September 2014, revealed in an official report that it had reached a customer pool of 4.2 million subscribers last October 2017.

Nexttel, which was the first operator to be granted a 3G broadband license in Cameroon but was, however, unable to use it between 2012 and 2014, is quite close to the goal of 5 million subscribers it aims to reach by the end of 2017, leveraging on 4G broadband which is still awaited.

Thanks to the expansion of Nexttel in Cameroon, the country has become Viettel’s leading market in Africa during the first semester of 2016, two years after it started operating in the country. The operator is the third largest in Cameroon.

According to Ovum, a British firm specialized in strategic analysis in the telecommunication industry, Nexttel is the telecom operator with the highest potential to grow till 2021.

Indeed, according to the British analyst, between February 2017 and December 2021, Nexttel will win 3.4% of Cameroon’s telecommunication market, bringing its total market share to 15% over the period. Meanwhile Orange Cameroon and MTN will respectively hold 37% (+2.3%) and 44.6% of the same market over the period reviewed.

Brice R. Mbodiam