Senegalese regulator ARTP (L’Autorite de Regulation des Telecommunications et des Postes / Regulation Authority for Telecommunications and Posts) has fined the country’s three mobile providers a total of XOF20.284 billion (US$35 million).
A regulatory audit carried out between August and November this year found that Expresso Senegal, Saga Africa Holding’s Free, and Orange’s Sonatel had all breached their licence terms by failing to meet obligations relating to quality of service and coverage. The operators have respectively been fined XOF1.028 billion, XOF2.258 billion and XOF16.727 billion.
CommsUpdate reports that Free and Sonatel have challenged the findings of the audit, underlining the substantial sums that they have invested into their networks across the last few years. The ARTP claims that the audit formed part of a major investigation into network quality and coverage, taking into account 2G, 3G and 4G standards across the country’s 46 departments and major travel routes.
