Camtel Fibre Cost Me an Extra 194,000 FCFA ($340). I Used It for One Day.

Dollar figures use about 570 FCFA to $1.

On September 2, I found a Facebook ad for Camtel fibre and messaged the number. The man who answered was quick, patient, and convincing. He is the only good guy in this story.

I wasn't ready to sign up yet. I had just moved, and my Starlink installation couldn't move with me, so I was on MTN Home (opens in a new tab) to figure out what's the next thing. MTN Home is the worst, but that's a story for another day. It was still active, so I told him I would come back when it expired.

It ran out around September 15, and I didn't renew it. On September 18, I signed up on Camtel's FiberConnect (opens in a new tab) platform and paid 50,000 FCFA ($88). I was told 25,000 ($44) covered materials and 25,000 covered the first month. Installation was scheduled for September 24.

This was not my first time with Camtel. I left them in 2021 after an experience just as bad. I came back because I wanted to believe things had changed.

Then I waited.

I'm a software engineer, so being offline means lost work. While I waited, I ran on MTN mobile data. A 1,000 FCFA ($1.75) bundle lasts two hours, maybe three hours of simply being online (25-50-75-90-95%, you know you know). Most days I spent 4,000 to 5,000 FCFA ($7–9). Some days, 7,000 ($12). At night I bought two 200 FCFA ($0.35) night bundles to keep working.

Going out didn't save money either. A co-working space averages 3,000 FCFA ($5) a day, and I still needed about 2,000 FCFA ($3.50) in data for the commute and back home. A cafe costs about the same, because nobody sits in a cafe without ordering.

And I couldn't switch providers without walking away from the 50,000 I had already paid. So every day of waiting added to what Camtel was costing me.

September 24 came and went. I kept asking for updates. The technicians finally came on Tuesday, October 20, more than a month after I paid. The connection came alive near midnight, so my first real day online was Wednesday. I worked all day on their network the next day.

By Wednesday evening, it was down.

I was at Camtel's office the next morning. They told me to wait for "les techniciens." Every visit since, I hear the same thing: the technicians will call you today, or tomorrow. Nobody has called, and nobody has come.

I got the field lead's number and called him. His answer: "Petit, il faut me respecter eh." Wah grand. For asking him to do his job?

That is Camtel's customer service in one line. You come with a problem, and they act as if you owe them something.

I have written before (opens in a new tab) about this pattern in Cameroon's official tech: bad front, shaky back, zero accountability. Camtel fits it.

The one exception is the man from the Facebook ad. He kept reassuring me when no one else would. When I reached out, he followed up with his contacts at Camtel, and I believe he is part of the reason my installation happened at all. He also explained my rights as a customer, like how to contest a bill. Had I known that in 2021, I could have recovered some of the money I lost then. He is the only person in this story who communicates, and the only one who tried to educate me.

Once he explained some of this, I kept asking myself: where are the regulations in all of this? As a customer, I know Camtel should at least acknowledge my complaint and tell me when it will be fixed. If they don't, I should be able to take it to ART, the telecom regulator. None of that has happened. My complaint is twelve days old.

So I'm back on mobile data, and back to the same question every morning. Stay patient, or cut my losses and go elsewhere?

Here is what choosing Camtel actually cost. First, everything I spent from the day my MTN Home plan ran out, using a middle estimate of 4,500 FCFA in day bundles plus 400 FCFA at night, or 4,900 FCFA ($8.60) a day.

• Mobile data while waiting for installation (Sept 15 – Oct 20, 35 days): 171,500 FCFA ($301)

• Mobile data while waiting for repair (Oct 22 – Nov 3, 12 days): 58,800 FCFA ($103)

• Camtel payment (materials + first month): 50,000 FCFA ($88)

• Total: 280,300 FCFA ($492)

On my cheapest estimate, 4,000 a day plus night bundles, it comes to 256,800 FCFA ($451). On a heavier one, about 304,000 ($533). That leaves out the 7,000 FCFA days.

But I would have paid for internet anyway, so that total is not the real cost of Camtel. Had I stayed on MTN Home or moved to Orange Home, I would have spent 20,000 to 25,000 FCFA ($35–44) a month, plus about 1,000 FCFA ($1.75) a day in data when I'm out. Over the same 47 days, at the top of that range, that comes to about 86,200 FCFA ($151). The difference is what Camtel cost me.

• What I spent waiting on Camtel: 280,300 FCFA ($492)

• What I would have spent on MTN Home or Orange Home: 86,200 FCFA ($151)

• Extra cost of choosing Camtel: 194,100 FCFA ($341)

So choosing Camtel cost me about 194,000 FCFA ($340) more than staying with MTN Home would have. Depending on how heavy my days were, the extra lands between 171,000 and 218,000 FCFA ($300–382). And the 25,000 FCFA ($44) "first month" bought me one day.

Here's how crazy this is. Had I gone for one of Starlink's new plans at about 65,000 FCFA ($114) a month, those 47 days would have cost me around 102,000 FCFA ($179). I would still have saved about 178,000 FCFA ($312).

I'm not writing this to get anything out of Camtel, and I'm not telling you not to get their fibre. I'm saying be careful. Know what you're in for, because from what I've seen, my case isn't even the worst. I say this as someone still exploring options for my own internet.