(Business in Cameroon) – Camtel, the public concessionaire that manages Cameroon’s national transport network for electronic communications, strengthened its strategic position in 2024. According to the Annual Observatory of the Electronic Communications Market published by the ART, the operator’s transport activities generated CFA33.717 billion, up 17.15% from the CFA28.78 billion recorded in 2023.
This rebound follows a stronger year in 2022, when revenues reached CFA36.5 billion, highlighting a still-modest return to growth in a context of surging demand for data transport capacity. “Regarding CAMTEL’s transport network, the finding is one of stagnation because since 2021, the information provided by the Operator on that network has remained exactly the same,” the ART report notes. The improvement observed in 2024 is attributed to network maintenance efforts and rising bandwidth needs from mobile operators, Internet service providers, and large enterprises.
A major national and regional backbone
Camtel operates one of the most extensive transport networks in Central Africa. Its national fiber-optic backbone spans about 12,000 km, complemented by more than 500 km of metropolitan loops deployed in eight regional capitals. This infrastructure serves all ten regional capitals, 51 departments, and 209 districts, with interconnection points to all neighboring countries: Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, and Chad.
Internationally, the operator has three landing stations in Kribi, Limbe, and Douala, connected to the SAT3, WACS, NCSCS, and SAIL submarine cables. These links provide access to global networks across Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Camtel also holds ownership rights over nearly 50,000 km of cables, a major advantage for providing international transmission services to national and regional operators.
A near-monopoly still under-exploited
Despite this unique market position and its near-monopoly over transport infrastructure for electronic communications, Camtel has yet to fully capitalize on its assets. Performance remains below expectations, constrained by operational challenges and limited use of its network capacity.
This underperformance reduces the impact the public operator could have on the overall competitiveness of the telecommunications sector while slowing its own revenue growth, despite the CFA33.7 billion generated in 2024.
Amina Malloum
