| OVERVIEW
OF THE INTERNET DEVELOPMENT IN CAMEROON
Prepared by: Melouta Mezom
Ministry of Communication
mezom@yahoo.com
Introduction
Cameroon is almost a triangular
shaped country in Central Africa, at the golf of Guinee. Cameroon
is limited to the south by Equatrial Guinee, Gabon, to the south
east by the Republic of Congo, to the east by the Republic of
Central Africa, to the north by the Repubic of Tchad, to the north
west by the Republic of Niger and finaly to the west by The
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Some
data figures
Area : 475 442 Km2
Population : 12.7 millions in 1991 and estimated to 15 millions in
2000
Oficial bodies involved in the developpement of the Internet
|
Denomination
|
Role
in the Internet environnement
|
|
Ministry
of Communication
|
Policy,
coordination and Regulation
|
|
Ministry
of Post and Telecommunication
|
Policy
and coordination
|
|
Ministry
of Higher Education
|
Training
Policy, coordination
|
|
Telecommunication
Regulation Agency
|
Regulation
|
|
Computer
Developpement Center
|
Access
provider
|
|
National
Polytechnic High Scool
|
Human
ressources training
|
|
National
High Scool of Post and Telecom.
|
Human
ressources training
|
Telephone
operators
|
Denomination
|
Main
caracteristics
|
|
CAMTEL*
|
Fixed
line operator, main access provide
|
|
CAMTEL
MOBILE*
|
Wireless
line operator, no access yet
|
|
MOBILE
NETWORK TELEPHONE*
|
Wireless
line operator, no access yet
|
*share holder state/private
- 134,000 fixed lines for 70,558
operational
- 70,000 suscribers to fixe
telephone
- 3,000 suscribers to cellular
phone
- 1,500 suscriber to internet
- 37 Km of fiber optic links of
140 Mbps (inside the capital city)
- 17 KM of fiber optic links of
140 Mbps (inside the economic capital)
- Inter_urban communications are
made trougth 34Mbps links
- The rest of the country is
connected via copper lines at 64Kbps (data available in 1999)
|
General
figures in 1995
|
|
-
Number of tel. Lines for 100 inhabitants
-
average number of tel.lines in main towns
-
average number of tel.lines in other towns
-
rate
of numerisation |
<
50%
-
96,600
-
40,000
-
68.79%
|
|
-
connection fees
-
maintenance fees per telephone
-
6
mn communication tarif
-
average tarif for one hour consultation on the net |
1FCFA=
1/550 US&
-
60,000FCFA
-
3,500 FCFA
-
40 FCFA
-
2,000FCFA
|
|
-
number
personnal cumputer
-
number of providers in the capital city
-
average connection bit rate
-
total number of internet suscribers in the capital
city
-
number of computers for cyber café in the capital
city
-
main services used
-
classification of users in term of frequentation
(decreasing order)
|
-15,000
in1990 ;20,000 in 1998
-10
-64
kbps inside 256Kbps outside
-
2,500 in 1998
-
350
-
e-mail and Web
-
Research, students, poeple insearh of contacts espacially
female, NGO, statal.
|
Other
comments
The general regulation which
gives the possibility for individuals to sell telephone services
helps for the growth of telecenters. Cyber café number is
therefore increasing considerably in the main towns of the
country.
As one can observe, the
developpement of the Internet applications in Cameroon is still
very low compared to similar contries of the south. Applications
such as telephony in Internet, or the E-commerce are not yet used
though qualified human ressources is available. But the growth
rate of use of the Internet facilities is high enougth to hope
that these services will soon be part of the practice of most
Cameroonians. One important aspect to quote out is the low
capacity of the telecommunication infrastructure neither in terms
of quality nor in terms of quantity ; This situation leads to
limitations for the universal acces to Internet services, and to
the access to more demanding applications in term of bandwith.
As far as regulation is
concerned, the Internet is at the jonction of Telecommunication
Regulation dealing with point to point connections on one side
and, in the oder side the Communication Regulation dealing with
the difusion of multimedia information. The latest regulation has
accured in last April 2000 is not yet applied on the field, but
the governement is looking forwards to create an environnement
that could help to develop this area by a soft regulation, on a
realistic basis. Therefore, only the regulation on
telecommunication is now applied.
These is shortly summarised the
main aspects of the deveppement of the Internet In Cameroon.
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