Cameroon’s watchdog rejects MTN’s tariff proposal ⁰

The Cameroonian Telecommunications Regulatory Board (TRB) has rejected MTN Cameroon’s proposed tariff plan for 2019, ITWeb Africa reported. It rejected the operator’s technical offering and pricing conditions for access and sharing of network infrastructure, because it reportedly did not respect certain proposals made by TRB’s board. 

TRB had recommended that MTN Cameroon reduce the cost of interconnection for SMS and voice by 50 percent, eliminate validity periods for SMS bundles, reduce SMS tariffs by 30 percent, as well as reduce the surcharge distribution key in favour of partners. The regulator had also asked the company to define the maximum duration of an internet session and the period of disconnection, and to reduce the 40 percent activation fee. The network operators had been urged to remove fixed monthly fees which do not correspond to any service or validity duration of offers, amongst others.

Officials said following a review of the company’s interconnection catalogue, it was clear that most of the recommendations were not taken into account. According to the regulator, in MTN Cameroon’s proposal, some fees were maintained while others were increased compared with 2018. Ali Soungui, TRB’s Director of Licensing, Competition and Interconnection, said MTN Cameroon replicated its 2018 interconnection catalogue, which levied call cost at XAF 22 per minute during peak hours and XAF 20 per minute off peak, instead of XAF 12 per minute as recommended by TRB.

MTN Cameroon has not responded to the latest development.

Source: Telecompaper