Cameroon’s Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB) has issued penalty notices to telecom providers MTN Cameroon and Orange Cameroon, amounting to over $4.6 million (2.6 billion CFA).
Both telecommunication companies have been fined for violating their coverage and quality of service obligations as outlined in their licences.
Following inspections carried out between April and May 2024, TRB flagged both operators for failing to meet essential benchmarks for network coverage and service quality across major corridors and urban centres, including Yaounde, Douala, Ebolowa, and Ntam.
Orange received a fine of $2.5 million, while MTN was fined $1.8 million.
Beyond these network lapses, TRB also uncovered irregular pricing practices and malfunctioning opt-out codes for value-added services (VAS), especially on Orange’s platform. The regulator levied an additional $357,000 (200 million CFA) on Orange for these pricing violations.
“By taking these actions, TRB is sending a strong message to mobile network operators that laxity in meeting regulatory obligations will not be tolerated,” Philemon Zoo Zame, TRB’s Director General, told ITWEB Africa.
This is not the first time that both telecommunications companies have been fined.
In May 2023, CamTel, MTN, Orange, and Viettel were fined a total of $9.8 million (6 billion CFA) for persistent failures in coverage and poor service quality in Cameroon. At the time, Orange was fined $3.5 million, while MTN Cameroon had a $2.2 million fine.
In 2016, MTN also faced a regulatory fine from the Cameroon regulator.
The fines are a broader sweep by the telecom regulator. In April 2025, TRB announced a bold plan to recover over $52 million in unpaid licence fees and regulatory penalties from mobile network operators.
The campaign aims to address long-standing debts owed by network providers and is part of the government’s efforts to reinforce compliance, aligning with Cameroon’s Vision 2025.
This move follows years of non-compliance and mounting debts by players in the telecom sector.
Operators are now under pressure to ramp up investments in broadband and rural coverage. The TRB may follow this wave of fines with licence suspensions and stricter conditions for operators who fail to comply.
