The clock is now ticking for Congo-Brazzaville’s two biggest mobile operators. On 8 April in Brazzaville, the telecoms regulator ARPCE formally served notice on MTN Congo and Airtel Congo, giving them six months to lift service quality judged below expectations.
A regulator’s verdict: progress, but not enough
The message from the Agence de régulation des postes et des communications électroniques was blunt. Performance had improved, the watchdog said, yet still fell short of the standards customers are entitled to expect across much of the country.
“The results show progress, but remain broadly insufficient with regard to regulatory thresholds. These regulatory injunctions set a deadline for improving service quality, after which a fresh assessment will be carried out,” said Benjamin Mouandza, director of electronic communications networks and services at the ARPCE.
The wording matters. This is not a fine or a sanction, but a deadline. The operators have a fixed window to act, and the regulator has promised to come back and measure whether the promises have turned into bars of signal on people’s phones.
What the February tests on the ground revealed
The notice grew out of a measurement campaign run from 6 to 23 February across twenty localities. Inspectors fanned out through the departments of Kouilou, Likouala, Niari, Bouenza, Sangha and Plateaux, putting 2G, 3G and 4G networks through their paces in real conditions.
The findings were uneven rather than uniformly poor. The picture changed from one region to the next, with some technologies holding up while others struggled to deliver the basics that travellers, traders and families rely on every day.
In the south of the country, both MTN and Airtel posted comparatively stronger 3G results. That offers some reassurance to users in busier corridors, where data has become the backbone of mobile money, messaging and small-business activity.
The older 2G layer told a harsher story. For both operators, basic 2G coverage remained fragile, a reminder that voice and text still falter in places where they ought to be the most dependable service of all.
Where the 4G map still has blank spaces
On the newest technology, the two rivals are travelling at different speeds. MTN is pressing on with its 4G rollout, now live in eleven localities in the interior, gradually pushing high-speed data beyond the main cities and into smaller towns.
Airtel, by contrast, is still missing from several key areas. According to the regulator’s review, the operator has no presence in localities including Bétou, Enyellé, Sembé and Mossendjo, leaving residents there without its high-speed offer.
Airtel has not stayed silent on the gaps. The company links its weaker showing to disruptions on its transport network, blaming repeated breaks in the optical fibre supplied by Congo Télécom for knocking out connections upstream of its towers.
That explanation points to a wider truth about telecoms here: a mast is only as good as the backbone feeding it. When the fibre fails, even well-equipped sites can go dark, and customers rarely care which company is at fault.
The rules operators are reminded to respect
The ARPCE used the moment to restate two obligations that sit at the heart of how the sector is policed. Operators must declare any change to their network architecture, keeping the regulator informed before they reshape the way their systems are built.
They must also seek prior authorisation before any experimental use of satellite terminals. With satellite connectivity rising up the agenda across Central Africa, the regulator is signalling that new technology will not be deployed quietly or without oversight.
For ordinary subscribers, the takeaway is simpler. Somewhere over the next six months, the quality of calls in the Likouala, the speed of a download in the Niari and the reliability of a signal in the Plateaux are all supposed to get better.
Whether that happens will hinge on real investment, on Congo Télécom’s fibre staying up, and on the regulator’s willingness to follow through when the deadline arrives. The promise has been made on paper. The proof, as always, will be in the network. (ACI)