Senegalese regulator ARTP (L’Autorite de Regulation des Telecommunications et des Postes) has formally warned Expresso Telecom that it must improve its services or face being stripped of its operating licence.
According to Agence Ecofin, Expresso has failed to meet the service obligations stipulated by the terms of its licence due to years of underinvesting in its network.
Expresso lags behind its rivals Orange and Free in terms of 4G services. While these operators launched LTE services in July 2018 and October 2019 respectively, in March 2020 Expresso delayed its planned 4G offering due to the pandemic and has not yet launched services.
TeleGeography reports that the operator, which is Senegal’s third largest by subscribers, also owes the regulator XOF7 billion (US$12.9 million) in unpaid fees. ARTP has reportedly already begun procedures to revoke Expresso’s licence unless it improves, although the timeline for this has not been disclosed.
