Orange Senegal fined USD6.7m for poor service

State authorities in Senegal have upheld a fine of USD6.7 million on one of the country’s mobile operators, Orange Senegal (formerly Sonatel Mobile), for its repeated failure to provide an adequate service on its cellular network. The State Council has endorsed an earlier fine imposed in January this year by the telecoms regulator, the Telecommunication and Postal Regulation Agency (ARTP), after repeated interruptions on its network. Sonatel, Orange Senegal’s parent, had launched an appeal which was rejected by the ARTP which deemed there was ‘no other recourse at this point.’ Orange Senegal was issued with a legal notice in 2006 after customers experienced ‘repeated cellular telephone network interruptions’, and in April this year the regulator threatened to double the fine after the cellco’s users complained of more outages. Orange Senegal has around two million mobile users, but subscribers regularly experience an erratic service which the company blames on ‘ongoing repair work’.