21 June 2005
A total of three companies have submitted offers for the new telecommunication licenses, said the Moroccan telecom watchdog ANRT on Monday in a communiqu. Analysts have high hopes the new deal will give a much needed fillip to a sagging sector.
The three companies which have bid following Feb. 24 tender, are Maroc Connect, Meditelecom, and Orascom Telecom of Egypt, added ANRT. A total of 33 companies expressed interest at first for the new generation of fixed-line phone licenses and withdrew the project's requirements file.
Meditelecom, a subsidiary of Telefonica of Spain and Portugal Telecom, already operates the second mobile license of the two granted in Morocco.
The Regulator's search for competition in the sector is thought to improve service quality in the fixed line business as the historic operator Itissalat Al-Maghrib, in which Vivendi Universal of France has a 51% economic interest, still relishes quasi-monopoly in a sector of high growth potential. While the total mobile phone subscribers in Morocco tops 10 million, barely 1.3 million fixed lines are accounted for by ANRT.
ANRT also hopes the liberalization of the sector will give a thrust to internet penetration in the Moroccan market through new offers of newcomers. Itissalat Al-Maghrib's broadband ADSL subscriber base - marketed for MAD 199 (EUR 18) per month - totaled 90,000 at end-March 2005.
The Regulator's liberalization strategy, whose principal aim is to see three players in all sectors of the market, the regulator issued a tender for six new fixed line licenses - two local, two Domestic Long Distance and two International Long Distance.
One of the envisioned bundles of three licenses now includes a limited mobility license, defined as being calls made within a 35 km radius, which can be upgraded to a full mobile license in 18 months, assuming fixed line commitments are maintained.
A total of three companies have submitted offers for the new telecommunication licenses, said the Moroccan telecom watchdog ANRT on Monday in a communiqu. Analysts have high hopes the new deal will give a much needed fillip to a sagging sector.
The three companies which have bid following Feb. 24 tender, are Maroc Connect, Meditelecom, and Orascom Telecom of Egypt, added ANRT. A total of 33 companies expressed interest at first for the new generation of fixed-line phone licenses and withdrew the project's requirements file.
Meditelecom, a subsidiary of Telefonica of Spain and Portugal Telecom, already operates the second mobile license of the two granted in Morocco.
The Regulator's search for competition in the sector is thought to improve service quality in the fixed line business as the historic operator Itissalat Al-Maghrib, in which Vivendi Universal of France has a 51% economic interest, still relishes quasi-monopoly in a sector of high growth potential. While the total mobile phone subscribers in Morocco tops 10 million, barely 1.3 million fixed lines are accounted for by ANRT.
ANRT also hopes the liberalization of the sector will give a thrust to internet penetration in the Moroccan market through new offers of newcomers. Itissalat Al-Maghrib's broadband ADSL subscriber base - marketed for MAD 199 (EUR 18) per month - totaled 90,000 at end-March 2005.
The Regulator's liberalization strategy, whose principal aim is to see three players in all sectors of the market, the regulator issued a tender for six new fixed line licenses - two local, two Domestic Long Distance and two International Long Distance.
One of the envisioned bundles of three licenses now includes a limited mobility license, defined as being calls made within a 35 km radius, which can be upgraded to a full mobile license in 18 months, assuming fixed line commitments are maintained.
© Morocco Times 2005
