Morocco, one of key broadband national markets in Africa, has been experiencing a noticeable growth in high speed internet subscriptions mainly driven by new generation mobile broadband services based on both HSDPA and EV-DO technologies.
In fact between 2007 and 2009 the total number of broadband subscriptions rose from 418 thousands to nearly 1.2 million at 2009-end, thus growing more than three folds in the referred period. This has been made possible thanks to the arrival of mobile internet access services through 3G data keys that have been first rolled out by national MNOs pioneered by INWI formerly Known as Wana.
But most striking is the fact that mobile broadband in Morocco has grown from a status of alternative broadband access service to the main one in just 2 years, outpacing fixed broadband access through DSL technology. As shown on the figure below, mobile broadband subscribers surpassed fixed broadband ones in the third quarter of 2009 before closing the year at 713 thousands. At the same time, fixed broadband has been declining in 2009 before ending the year at its lowest level since 2007-end with 469 thousands connections.
The question here is the game over for fixed broadband in Morocco? It all depends on the strategies that would be implemented by the national Telcos especially the incumbent and market leader Maroc Telecom which is the main provider of fixed broadband services.
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© Press Release 2010
