(Business in Cameroon) – During the economic forum on September 18, 2024, in Douala, Célestin Tawamba, president of the Cameroon Employers’ Group (Gecam), expressed concern about the gradual decline of landline telephony since the rise of mobile phones. He highlighted that 25 years after the telecommunications market was opened to competition, landline services, especially for businesses, are disappearing under the monopoly of Cameroon Telecommunications (Camtel).
Tawamba noted that in many Western and African countries, the landline market has evolved into unified communication, presenting growth opportunities for local private operators. He emphasized the need for government to reform digital development policies to avoid missing out on effective service digitization in an era increasingly driven by artificial intelligence.
According to the Cameroon National Statistics Institute (INS), the landline penetration rate rose slightly from 2.75% to 2.96% between 2012 and 2017. In contrast, mobile penetration surged from 64.1% to 84.8% during the same period. The total number of active subscriptions to services provided by Camtel has been declining since 2019. In 2022, there were 363,174 subscriptions, a drop of 39.80% compared to 2021, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART) in its annual market report for 2022.
