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Maroc: Faster Connections With France

This week witnessed an important step forward in the modernisation of the broadband data infrastructure as a new underwater fibre optic cable began to be laid to link the north of Morocco to southern France.

On April 14, Mohamed Benaissa, the Moroccan minister of foreign affairs, Mohamed Hassad, Wali of Tanger and Abdeslam Ahizoune, the president of Maroc Télécom , launched works on the Asilah-Marseille underwater cable.

After almost a year of feasibility studies, the underwater cable will take three weeks to be laid. Due to administrative issues however, the link-up will only be operational in June.

Covering 1634km, the 'Atlas Offshore' cable represents an investment of Dh288m ($35m) covered entirely by Maroc Télécom . This is the first time the national operator has undertaken such a substantial project, subcontracting the laying of the cable to French operator Alcatel Submarine Network.

Alcatel laid the two existing cables linking Casablanca and Tetouan to France. In addition to replacing the 20-year old submarine Eurafrica cable, this new link will also cater to new demand emerging from Moroccan households and foreign companies outsourcing production and services to North Africa.

Given the rising demand for bandwidth, the existing links would become saturated by the end of 2007 without additional investment.

"There is an enormous need in Morocco for passing bands of IP, Data and voice, especially with the increase in the number of companies operating in offshoring and call centres, and the growing use of ADSL by Moroccans," said Ahizoune. "Considering competition, it is important to offer high-quality telecommunications services at a good price. This cable will make the country more competitive."

While the initial capacity of the fibre optic cable will be 40 gigabytes a second (GBPS), the bandwith could be expanded to 320 GBPS. The cable will be able to handle over 500,000 simultaneous calls, responding to rising IP and voice needs.

The tie-in effectively links the Moroccan system straight into the big European operators in Marseille.

The high costs of telecommunications have indeed hampered the promising call-centre business, as more than 20% of investment costs are related to telecom infrastructure. Morocco's competitors such as Egypt and countries in Eastern Europe can offer lower tariffs.

However, there has been a sustained growth in outsourcing activities known as 'offshoring' in the past few years, which are expected to contribute Dh15.1bn ($1.83bn) to gross domestic product by 2013.

While the first dedicated zone to offshoring, Casashore, will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2007, the technopolis in Rabat will also be operational in the course of 2007. Competition in the provision of telecoms services to offshoring parks has been heating up, with the third operator Wana winning the bid to provide telecoms services to Casashore by offering prices up to 30% below market averages on certain segments.

Other projects under study, such as an offshoring zone next to the Tanger Free Zone, or MarrakechShore in the South. With such integrated projects, demand for bandwidth is bound to grow.

"The construction of this cable will contribute to consolidating Morocco's position as a leading home base for offshore companies," said Ahizoune.

© Oxford Business Group 2007