Chad orders telcos to connect to national fiber network (2025)

(Source: Allexxandar on Freepik)

Chad's Minister of Posts and Digital Economy, Dr. Boukar Michel, has given the country's telecoms operators Airtel and Moov Africa one week to connect to the national fiber-optic network to improve quality of service (QoS).

In a meeting with the telcos, the minister said telcos should improve the QoS or face potential sanctions.

Michel said as part of the Electronic Communications Infrastructure Modernization and Improvement Project the country has deployed 1,275km of fiber to optimize network quality.

However, even with the deployment, the minister said there have been mounting consumer complaints over frequent outages, unstable Internet and high tariffs relative to service quality.

Therefore, to remedy the situation, telcos need to take extreme measures to improve the country's QoS.

"Public expectations for better communication have never been higher, and it is unacceptable to continue like this," Michel explained.

The minister's stance is intended to boost connectivity in the Central African country which has an Internet penetration rate of just 13.2%, according to statistics from the data platform DataReportal, which found that Chad had 2.74 million Internet users in January2025.

With a population of 20.7 million, Kepios analysis indicates that the number of Internet users in Chad increased by 113,000, or 4.3%, between January 2024 and January 2025.

Related:Airtel Chad fined $8.3M for deteriorating network

Chad's crackdown on bad service

The one-week ultimatum is not the first time that the country has cracked down on bad telecoms service.

In August 2023, Chad's Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Post (ARCEP), slapped Airtel Chad with a fine of 5 billion Central Africa CFA francs (US$8.3 million at the time) for deteriorating network quality.

After a QoS audit of mobile operators, the regulator found a notable degradation of quality on Airtel Chad's network.

At the time it said service on Moov Africa's network had recorded a clear improvement in most cities, with the exception of coverage of the main roads, which it said remained mediocre.

Moov Africa Chad was given a formal notice from the regulator while Airtel Chad was given a formal notice and a fine.

Airtel Chad is the biggest operator in the country with about 52.7% market share at the end of the second quarter of 2025, according to statistics from market research company Omdia, a sister company of Connecting Africa.

Moov Africa had the remaining 47.3% market share.

African telcos fined for QoS

In recent times there have been many telcos fined for sub-standard network services across the continent.

In July 2025, the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) mandated Airtel to compensate customers after a network outage caused extensive disruption for the second time in the year.

In February 2025, the regulatorcompelled Airtel Zambia to reimburse all affected customers, with a total compensation value of K4 million (approximately $142,500 at the time), asper the Consumer Protection Guidelines.

In May 2023, Cameroon's telecom regulator fined the country's four mobile operators a total of XAF6 billion (US$9.8 million at the time) for poor network performance.

Togo's telecom regulator ARCEP also warned Moov Africa Togo and Togo Cellulaire (Togocom) of potential penalties if they failed to improve their service quality in June 2023.

This warning followed a fine of 2.3 billion West African CFA francs (US$3.7 million at the time) imposed on Togocom in June 2022 for "serious breaches" in providing continuous, uninterrupted mobile service.

Also in June 2022, Moov Africa Togo received a formal notice from Togo's ARCEP for similar service deficiencies.

In July 2022, Orange Guinea was fined 9.5 billion Guinean francs (US$1.1 million at the time) for "failing to meet its service availability obligations" after a network outage left customers without key services for over 30 hours.