By Louvier Kindo Tombe in Yaounde
When the General Manager of Camtel, Judith Yah Sunday Epse Achidi launched Camtel’s commercial brand (Blue), in August 2021, the Idea was that it will be a vehicle to transport CAMTEL’s fixed, mobile and internet services to the consumers. One year after, Cameroonians have seen visible changes.
‘I was obliged to register a Blue SIM card because of the presence of the brand in Yaounde and the various offers available for me,” says a Blue customer based in Mvog-Mbi quarter, Yaounde.
Cameroonians in most big cities across the country are enjoying the services offered by Blue. They say “it is fast, reliable and cost effective”.
Immediately after the launch of Blue, Camtel initiated moves to take the services closest to customers not only in big cities but equally in the hinterlands of villages all over the country. The best option chosen was National Roaming, and the state owned Telecom operator decided to partner with MTN Cameroon.
September 28, 2021 in Yaounde, both companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation of national roaming services.
“This is yet another act which demonstrates MTN’s commitment to contribute to the development of the telecommunications sector in Cameroon,” Judith Yah Sunday, General Manager of Camtel said during the signing of the Memo.
On April 13, 2022 in Johannesburg – South Africa, Camtel and MTN again signed a strategic network roaming agreement, which paved the way for the launching of the roaming operations in Cameroon.
Proximity Roaming Services
It is official, Blue customers in Cameroon now have access to fixed, mobile and internet services in areas where the network operator’s coverage is absent, but where MTN coverage is available.
This is thanks to the local roaming operation that was launched recently (December 14, 2022) in Nkoteng, Upper Sanaga Division of the Center region.
Speaking at the launch, the Director General of Camtel, Judith Yah Sunday Epse Achidi, said “we are extremely pleased with the launch of local roaming on MTN Cameroon’s network”.
“This service will allow Camtel customers to access network services in areas already covered by MTN Cameroon where Camtel is not currently present,” Judith Yah Sunday said during the launch.
Most of those who are using Blue services see this as a milestone achievement.
“Whenever i travel out of Camtel’s network, all my internet operations are blocked, but now, that problem is behind me,” one of the Blue customers confided in News Upfront.
“I had to test it first, and now I can say I’m satisfied,” another user said.
The local roaming service has been enabled in a first phase across more than two hundred sites, a scope of which will be progressively expanded as agreed between the operators.
“At Camtel, we have the ambition to continue to grow our mobile telephony services, we look forward to more of our customers enjoying voice and data services across various regions,” Camtel’s GM said.
Present at the launch in Nkoteng was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MTN Cameroon, Mrs Mitwa Kaemba Ng’ambi, who praised the option of local roaming embraced by Camtel.
“At MTN, our core belief is that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life and we see it as our responsibility as a key player in the industry to continuously seek out innovative solutions that will increase the usage and penetration of connectivity solutions across the country,” Mrs Mitwa Kaemba Ng’ambi said.
The governor of the Center region, Naseri Paul Bea, was part of the launching in Nkoteng.
Worth noting is the fact that the completion of the local roaming project is a concrete manifestation of the win-win partnership between Camtel and MTN Cameroon under the auspices of Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.
