Liberia: the historic operator LIBTELCO changes its name and enters the mobile segment
January 19th 2022
Since President Weah came to power in 2018, the government has multiplied initiatives to make the public telecom company more dynamic. One of them led in 2020 to the modification of the telecoms law which transforms the national operator.
The incumbent Liberian telecommunications operator LIBTELCO (Liberia Telecommunication Corporation) is getting a makeover. The state-owned company will now be called Liberia Telecommunications Corporation Mobile (LTC Mobile) and will introduce mobile phone services into its offerings. It will be inaugurated on Tuesday, January 18, by the President of the Republic of Liberia, George Weah (photo), who should make the first voice call on the new network.
According to the management of LTC Mobile, this initiative of the government aims in particular to fill the gaps in the sector and to meet the needs of the Liberian people. LTC Mobile will enter the GSM segment alongside Lonestar Cell MTN and Orange Liberia.
The management was also keen to dispel ideas that the government has ambitions to do away with existing service providers and assign LTC the role of telecommunications regulator in addition to being a service provider. She pointed out that regulation of the sector is solely the responsibility of the Telecommunications Authority of Liberia, while LTC Mobile is a service provider like other public companies.
LIBTELCO’s entry into the mobile segment follows the 2020 amendment to Liberia’s Telecommunications Act 2007 which was intended, among other things, to expand its functions. It is part of President Weah’s vision to make LTC a viable telecommunications company in the sub-region, able to compete with the South African MTN, the French Orange or even the British Vodacom.
In 2020, the House of Representatives of the Republic of Liberia estimated that the extension of the scope of action of LIBTELCO should allow the public operator to provide world-class telecommunications products and services at affordable prices to all Liberians, to serve the masses in general for a sustainable economic growth of the society and, above all, to contribute more to the national budget.
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