Cameroon’s Telecommunications Regulatory Agency has fined the local operations of MTN, Orange and Viettel a collective XAF3.5 billion ($6 million).
The Cameroon Press Agency reported that the penalties were issued on the grounds that none of the operators had met agreed network improvement targets, with the regulator claiming that the operators’ network standards were in fact “still deteriorating”. Additionally, the operators had not registered SIM cards as stipulated by the September 2015 regulation regarding customer identification.
The regulator issued Orange with a fine of XAF1.5 billion, while the other two each received a XAF1 billion penalty. The TRA also argued that operators should reduce wholesale rates in certain regions as a means of cutting tariffs for consumers.
In recent years, Cameroon has come down harder on telecoms operators for failing to comply with regulation, with Vodafone shuttering operations in 2017 due to licensing issues. A year earlier, MTN was hit with allegations of corruption by the country’s National Anti-Corruption Commission.
