03 October 2024
Camtel has appealed to public authorities, businesses and local communities to protect the country's telecoms infrastructure, as the national fibre optic network continues to deteriorate.
Camtel said that recurring outages on the national fibre optic network, over which the operator has a monopoly, are mainly due to acts of vandalism and public works sites.
Indeed, MTN Cameroon reported a 40% increase in the number of cuts observed since the beginning of the year compared to 2023. The company also specified that the deterioration has further worsened since August, with an average of two cuts per day.
While raising awareness among various stakeholders can help reduce fibre optic degradation and improve the quality of telecom services, establishing a regulatory framework for the protection of critical infrastructure remains essential. While Nigeria recorded 59,000 cases of fibre cuts in 2022 and 2023, the government adopted a measure last August criminalizing any attack on telecommunications infrastructure, including fibre optics.
