Monday, August 29, 2016

One Moroccan in Two is Connected to the Internet

According to the annual report of the National Regulatory Agency for Telecommunications at the end of 2015, Morocco had 14.5 million internet subscribers, an increase of 45% in one year. About one Moroccan out of two is connected to the internet. In late June 2016, the number of Internet subscribers in Morocco was $ 14.89 million (32.2% up from the end of June 2015)

The number of Moroccans with web subscription to jumped 150% between 2013 and 2015 and 675% since the beginning of this decade. The proportion of the Moroccan population having internet access has reached 42.75% at end-2015, against just over 15% in 2013 and nearly 7% at the beginning of this decade. In late June 2016, penetration rate has reached 43.98%.

Mobile Internet dominates the internet in Morocco with more than 92% connectivity by 2015, about 13.34 million subscribers "up 48.5% compared to 9 million subscribers recorded at the end of 2014.

In late June 2016, the mobile internet customer base in Morocco has amounted to 13.69 million subscribers, an increase of 34.4% year on year, but only 2.62% compared to December 2015.

Mobile telephony in Morocco has reached 43.08 million subscriptions at the end of 2015, down -2.33% year on year. This is the first decline recorded since 2005.

Meanwhile, the average revenue per mobile minute (ARPM "Average Revenue Per Minute") declined by 16% in 2015 to 0.27 dirhams tax per minute, against 0.32 dirhams at the end of 2014, despite an increase of + 10 % of outgoing voice traffic of mobile telephony, which reached 52.87 billion minutes last year.

"Morocco is the country's cheapest Arab area for downloading a volume of 1 GB of data," says the ARNT in a statement - but that increases the pressure on the margins of telecom operators.

In late June, Morocco Telecom, the market leader, had 18.147 million subscribers to mobile telephony in the Kingdom (43.79%), ahead of Meditel (Orange Group) with 31.8% and Inwi (Wana Corporate), with 24.41%.


ANRT’s latest annual report shows that, for the fifth consecutive year, landline phone usage had experienced a steady decline.

According to the ANRT, Morocco’s National Telecommunications Agency, sales of landline phones had peaked in 2010, when an estimated 3.74 million people had landlines in their homes. Since then, this statistic has been on a significant decline.

ANRT’s annual report shows that in 2014, 2.49 million people had landline phones and in 2015, that number went down to 2.22 million.

“This shows a change in consumer habits, with a progressive shift from landline to mobile usage due to the many advantages of total mobility,” said the ANRT.

Just this last June, the number of landline users had dropped down to 2.13 million, with Maroc Telecom dominating 71.24% of the market (Wana controls 26.73% while Medi Telecom controls a mere 2.03%).

The number of mobile phone subscribers reached 43.08 million, a high number in comparison to the landline’s 2.13 million.

It is also important to note the role of the Internet in this equation. With an annual growth of 45% since 2015, the Internet boasts 14.5 millions of users in Morocco. Since many online services allow users to replicate the experience of a phone call, this also contributes to the decline of landline phone usage.

This decline is expected to continue, given the increasing mobile/wireless nature of technology.

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