By Fatou Sillah
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Lamin Jabbi, told lawmakers on Wednesday that his ministry has formally instructed the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) to remove the price floor on telecommunications services. The directive follows recommendations from a high-level committee established to assess competition and consumer protection in the sector.
“Based on the findings, the ministry has now directed PURA to lift the price flow through a letter dated 16th of October 2025,” Mr. Jabbi said during an appearance before the National Assembly.
He noted that the committee has completed its work and submitted its final report, which was forwarded to the Office of the President. The ministry’s decision, he added, stems directly from the committee’s conclusions.
Mr. Jabbi also outlined the structural and market conditions that kept internet prices high prior to 2022. These challenges, he said, included the relatively recent deployment of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) submarine cable, low fixed-broadband penetration—estimated at roughly 4,000 subscribers—and a complicated tax regime, all of which contributed to costs remaining above global averages.
“At the time before 2022, the high cost of Internet was due to several factors, which included, but, not limited to, the relatively new ACE infrastructure, low fixed broadband penetration of approximately 4,000 subscribers, and complexity of the tax system,” he said.
He pointed to the return of Comium’s LTE network as a major driver of competition in recent years. “The resurgence of Comium’s LTE network, with its low penetration tariff, stimulates the competition, thereby forcing other players to revise their tariff downwards,” he said.
According to the minister, Comium’s aggressive pricing strategy—implemented despite financial losses—has rapidly expanded the company’s customer base.
“Comium has been operating at a loss until now. But only using those low prices as a market penetration strategy to acquire more customers. From almost no customers when Comium was declared closed to almost 800,000 active users at the end of quarter two of 2025, which represents a high percentage in terms of subscription,” he said, adding that, “This shows that their strategy has worked and is currently the second highest in terms of data traffic in the telecom sector in this country.”
Mr. Jabbi told lawmakers that PURA is currently finalizing a cost-of-service model for the telecom industry, which will establish the actual cost of providing each service.
“Pura is currently finalizing a cost of service for the telecom sector to determine the actual cost of each service provided by each operator. This will enable Pura to have a scientific methodology of obtaining the data tariff for the sector,” he said.