ICT market growing in Morocco
2006-09-10
Deregulation of the Moroccan telecom sector has led to great expansion of the Moroccan information technology and communication market, especially for Internet connections and mobile telephones.
By Adam Mahdi for Magharebia in Casablanca – 10/09/06
 [Getty Images] Moroccan businesses used 1.2 million computers in 2005, with another 745,000 owned by private citizens. |
The Moroccan information technology and communications (ICT) market is expanding rapidly because of deregulation of the sector, a policy the country implemented in the 1990s.
The country currently has over 5 million Internet users and more than 400,000 subscribers. Part of the reason for the boom has been the explosion in high-speed ADSL access. The number of ADSL subscribers grew 220 per cent between March 2005 and March of this year. Such users now account for 96 per cent of all Internet subscribers. Morocco has also become the first Arab and African country to have launched ADSL television technology.
The boom in Internet access has additionally led to over 25,000 domain names being registered in the country.
Over 120,000 computers and 40,000 printers are put on sale in Morocco each year. The country's businesses owned 1.2 million computers in 2005. In terms of personal use, 13.2 per cent of the population had a computer in 2005. The 745,000 personal computers in use represent 20 per cent more than the 2004 figure. T
he arrival of a second operator in the mobile phone market has led to penetration reaching 43 per cent in March from an estimated 13 million customers, according to the National Telecom Regulation Agency. Mobile penetration was 41 per cent at the end of 2005. In the first quarter of this year, the mobile phone market experienced 4 per cent growth. Prepaid phones account for 95 per cent of the total market, compared to 5 per cent for pay-as-you-go phones.
Original operator Maroc Telecom has 8.5 million subscribers and a market share of over 66 per cent, while new entrant, Meditel has 4.5 million subscribers.
The landline telephone market is stagnant, with only 1.31 million lines in use in June of this year.
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