Scheme to Extend Internet in Cameroon

Cameroon is one of the many countries in the world where access to the Internet is difficult.

Less than 1 percent of the population has Internet access. This is an abysmal figure for a country with a literacy rate of 82 percent.

The very few people that do have some access to the Internet depend on a small number of Internet Service Providers (ISP) whose services are rather expensive, shoddy and severely restricted to small geographic zones.


The government-owned telecommunications company (CAMTEL) has not lived up to expectations because of the paltry sums it has so far invested in capacity building.

A recent chat with Bernard Roy Kueyou, Products Manager at MTN Networks Solutions, in his Douala office on Aug 11, however gave me reason to hope.

"Negotiations between Global Net (an ISP) and MTN Cameroon started in May 2005 to explore the possibility of working together in partnership to provide better Internet Services to a larger number of Cameroonians...That partnership resulted in the creation of a new company in December 2005 called MTN Network Solutions."

Speaking about the projections of the new company, Kueyou said;

"Huge investment is ongoing to provide fixed wireless Internet solutions to 10 cities (provincial headquarters) by December 2006."

These New Generation networks (NGN) will rely on the first National Internet Backbone and are expected to provide Internet signals that cover a radius of 25 kilometers in each city.

This investment will have a "huge capacity" of 34mb/second, and the Internet source is the SAT 3 fiber, a fiber optics underwater cable that had been hooked to Cameroon for years but grossly under-utilized.

What should consumers expect from the new company?

"Band width usage will range between 64kb to 2megabits per user and pricing will depend on whether the bandwidth is dedicated or shared." Kueyou said.

From my findings, it was obvious that the cost of getting hooked to 24-hours Internet at MTN Networks solutions is still very high for the average Cameroonian.

For access to the minimum bandwidth (64kb), a customer is expected to make a non-refundable initial down payment of $300 and pay monthly bills of about $10 for one year and subsequently $40 every month as a recurring fee.

When I asked Kueyou what low-income people could expect from this new outfit, he said: "We are considering prepaid solutions for lower income people who will have to use the Internet according to their budget."

This means that the consumer will pay according to the length of time that he or she spends on the Internet.

I asked Kueyou what is needed to facilitate the growth of the Internet in Cameroon?

"CAMTEL needs to invest in capacity building. It is its duty to provide a national backbone from which ISPs can hook up and provide Internet to Cameroonians...We expect the government to use the 'telecommunications funds' to accompany us (private sector), build infrastructure and develop content."

Kueyou added that the other issues that demand attention include; high taxes, "the need to extend access to electricity and computers" and the possibility of seeking external assistance to subsidize this sector.

He said that the Internet "is very vital for development and the advancement of knowledge."

Meanwhile it should be noted that MTN Cameroon has started testing another parallel Internet option called GPRS/EDGE.

This MTN Cameroon mobile access solution involves delivering Internet to consumers via mobile telephones. The advantage of this option is that it will eventually cover a larger geographic area because MTN mobile telephone signals do reach most parts of Cameroon. The only drawback is the relative slow speed that is associated with the mobile access solution.

The Internet landscape in Cameroon will be completely changed for the better when these twin projects become fully operational. For now, only a few Cameroonians living in the big cities utilize the Internet and most depend on Cybercafes that charge between 60 cents to $1.20 per hour.