The construction of the National Emergency Telecommunications Network (RNTU) in Cameroon, entrusted to the Chinese company ZTE, which was originally supposed to take 24 months from January 2017, was still not completed at the end of 2023. This project to establish a multifunctional secure communication network in Cameroon has encountered several obstacles since initial negotiations in 2013. At the time, Cameroonian authorities expressed concern over ZTE’s use of 2G technology, which they already considered outdated. They have requested priority for 3G and 4G technology on an experimental basis, although it is not yet known whether these requests have been integrated into the project.
According to sources close to the matter, ZTE was not always in a hurry to make adjustments when Cameroon expressed reservations about certain aspects of project implementation, citing the risk of exceeding the initial budget. The Resytal-Matrix Télécoms consortium, responsible for monitoring the works, reported more than 900 reservations expressed by Cameroon on the quality of ZTE’s works, many of which have not yet been taken into account, explaining the significant delay in the delivery of the project. , which according to the contractual terms should have been completed in 2019.
The RNTU project emerged from the visit of Cameroonian President Paul Biya to China in 2011, and includes five components aimed at establishing a trunked radio communication network, an emergency communication system, a video surveillance system, a video conferencing system and a centralized technology platform for managing security operations.