In the latest bout of telecoms privatisation in Africa, Cameroon's state phone company has been sold off.

According to the Reuters news agency, a controlling 51% stake in Camtel is now owned by a consortium of two Tunisian operators, Tunisie Telecoms and Sotetel - themselves state-owned.

Cameroon's government is hoping that outside control will spur additional investment into a system which, like the phone network in a number of African countries, has stagnated.

In a country of 16 million people, Camtel has to date connected just 87,000 lines.

That makes one fixed-line phone for every 180 people - not quite as bad as Nigeria's 1:250 ratio, but not far off.

In contrast, Tunisie Telecoms has 1.2 million lines for a population of just under 10 million.

It also runs a mobile network with about 400,000 users, a figure it says it will double by early 2003.

First in line

Telecoms is often one of the first, and easiest, privatisations developing countries undertake.

The underdevelopment of the telecoms market, and the huge unsatisfied demand, means that foreign carriers are often keen to get involved - particularly in the cellular market, where the theft of copper wire, endemic across sub-Saharan Africa, is not an issue.

Sometimes the shift also includes an end to the monopoly status of the state telco, although this is not always the case.

But the process does not always go smoothly. Nigeria, for instance, has just had to rethink its attempt to sell off state carrier Nitel after the consortium which won the $1.3bn tender for the company failed to pay up in time.