Camtel, a national telecommunications and Internet service provider in Cameroon, is gearing up for the commercial launch of its new nationwide GSM mobile service, after unveiling the 'Blue' brand for its operations in August last year.
According to local media reports, the operator is in the process of sales of the sim cards as a prelude to an official launch of the operator’s 3G/4G network. "The official launch should happen this year. We expect it for the first quarter of the current year,” Camtel said.
"A new organizational chart was adopted at the Board of Directors meeting of December 30 [2021] and it reinforces the autonomy of the business units [as required by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications] backed by the three concession agreements granted by the government. The latest functional reorganization will remove any remaining blockages," said a government statement. The service is already active, the sources added.
Hence, the last obstacle to the launch of the mobile service "Blue Mobile" has almost been addressed. Camtel received new fixed and mobile concessions in March 2020 to enable it to launch a nationwide GSM network alongside its existing mobile CDMA and LTE services.
Camtel is still a minor player in Cameroon mobile market. According to the Ministry of ¨Posts and Telecommunications in November 2021, Orange Cameroon was the leading operator with over 11.899 million subscribers. MTN was second with over 11.099 million subscribers. Nexttel was third with some 2.3 million subscribers while Camtel was last with over 1.8 million subscribers.
