Cameroon's state-owned operator Camtel has received a second consignment of telecoms equipment from China, clearing the way for the next phase of its Mobile Network Expansion (MNE) project — a rollout that will add 245 mobile sites to the operator's existing footprint of 473.

The shipment comprised 35 containers, Camtel announced on Thursday. The operator did not name the supplier. Its track record points to a familiar partner, however: Camtel has worked with Huawei since 2009 on projects including its 4G network in Yaoundé and Douala, a Tier-III data centre in Yaoundé and the South Atlantic Inter Link (SAIL) submarine cable connecting Cameroon to Brazil.

MD Judith Yah Sunday Achidi said the new phase will focus on densifying the network in rural areas. The scope goes beyond raw site counts. Camtel plans to relieve congestion at 122 existing sites, strengthen the transport capacity of its metro loops, extend energy workshops, modernise its billing system and build new innovation capabilities, particularly in cloud computing.

"From the capitals of departments to the capitals of districts, from peri-urban areas to our villages, connectivity must be able to progress wherever Cameroonians live, work and do business," the operator said in a LinkedIn post.

Financing and first phase

The first phase of the MNE project began at the start of this year, after Camtel secured a syndicated financing agreement worth CFA44.884 billion (about US$81.2 million) with Commercial Bank Cameroon (CBC). News agency Ecofin reported that the facility forms part of a wider investment plan valued at CFA52.2 billion.

The project targets congested infrastructure directly. Its stated goal is to extend 2G, 3G and 4G coverage to regional and departmental capitals, university cities, strategic economic zones and rural areas with limited connectivity.

The multi-generational approach is telling. While much of the industry conversation centres on 5G, Camtel's immediate commercial reality involves extending basic 2G and 3G footprint alongside 4G — a reminder that large parts of rural Cameroon remain unserved even at lower technology tiers.

The Ethio Telecom dimension

At the end of last year, Camtel signed a three-year master service agreement with Ethio Telecom, Ethiopia's state-owned operator, covering four areas of cooperation. The first is modernisation of Camtel's mobile network, including 4G and 5G. The second covers development of Camtel's Blue Money mobile money service.

The third area — digitisation of public services and the establishment of a sovereign government cloud — aligns with the cloud computing ambitions embedded in the current MNE phase. The fourth covers internal transformation at Camtel, spanning organisation, information systems and customer culture.

The partnership between two African state operators, rather than a conventional vendor-operator contract, is an unusual structure for network modernisation of this scale. South-South cooperation of this kind gives Camtel access to Ethio Telecom's operational experience, though the Chinese equipment shipment suggests vendor relationships remain central to the actual build.

Cloud and billing alongside radios

The mix of work in the new MNE phase signals where Camtel sees its next revenue pools. Billing modernisation typically precedes the launch of richer service portfolios, while the government cloud agenda — reinforced by the Ethio Telecom agreement — positions Camtel to capture public-sector digitisation spending.

For now, the concrete deliverables are the 245 new sites, the decongestion of 122 existing ones and the capacity upgrades across transport and energy infrastructure. With the equipment now on Cameroonian soil, deployment timelines will depend on how quickly the operator can translate 35 containers of Chinese hardware into rural coverage gains under the CFA52.2 billion investment plan.