MTN Cameroon, one of the central African country’s main cell phone providers, has announced the launch of a 4G mobile network, which the company said would help boost Cameroon’s economy and access to basic services.

MTN Cameroon says it has nearly 10.4 million subscribers out of a population of about 22.8 million.

“The 4G of MTN Cameroon is an evolution,” Linda Kouam, MTN’s chief marketing officer, told journalists on Thursday.

“Cameroon’s economic growth will change. It’s access to education for millions of young people; it’s access to healthcare, to sanitation programmes in the whole world.”

The network will be rolled out in Yaounde, the capital, and to regional hubs Douala, Bamenda and Buea.

Valentin Simeon Zinga, a spokesman for Orange Cameroon, MTN’s chief competitor, said it had the technical and technological capacity to roll out its own 4G network but was waiting on government regulation.

Cameroon’s Telecommunications Regulation Agency was unable to comment immediately. Gabon’s Airtel launched a 4G network last month.