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Morocco's information technology market expands

The main information technology indicators in the information technology market continue to increase in Morocco, as demonstrated by the latest report from the monitoring centre at the National Telecoms Regulation Agency ( ANRT ), which pointed to sustained growth in the mobile, landline and internet segments.

Morocco now has over 23.5 million mobile customers in a market dominated by Maroc Telecom , which has a 62% share, and Medi Telecom (35%). The third-largest operator, Wana , has just a 2% market share at present. The growth of the mobile sector has brought penetration up to 75% from 66% in 2008.

"Despite this boom, the mobile market is still dominated by prepaid services (96%) versus 4% post-paid, and there is a lack of added-value services aimed at this target market", said Yassine El Ghazouani, manager of Cyberesa Maroc.

The ANRT 's findings also revealed that the landline telephony market has grown to three million customers, bringing the penetration level up to around 10%. This segment is paradoxically dominated by Wana , which has a 58% market share as compared with 42% for Maroc Telecom . In Q1 2009, the public telephone market contracted slightly by 0.13% as compared with December 2008.

The number of public phones available nationwide, including teleshops, phone boxes, and card-operated and GSM public phone booths, rose to 174,666.

As for the internet, this sector expanded by more than 43% in 2009 as compared with 2008. Morocco now has around 835,000 subscribers, half of whom use high-speed internet (ADSL). Maroc Telecom has a 66% market share, followed by Wana Corporate with 26%, and Medi Telecom with approximately 8%.

"The most significant aspect of the internet market is undoubtedly 3G mobile internet," said Faisal Benachou, director-general of the Consultancy Office at Ribatis. "Morocco has witnessed a 3G boom, since this means of access accounts for 40% of the market with more than 399,000 subscribers, and saw exponential growth of more than 288% between March 2008 and March of this year."

Wana has a market share of more than 60% as compared with around 20% for both Maroc Telecom and Medi Telecom .

Not only has access to landlines and mobile internet increased, but also the number of domain names. According to the latest figures available from the Moroccan Network Information Centre, Morocco now has over 30,000 domain names, including more than 23,000 under the .ma extension. The remainder are under the extensions press.ma, .gov, .co.ma, .net, and .org.ma.

"Despite the growth in terms of internet equipment and indicators, Morocco suffers from a woeful lack of content," said Mahdi Tazi, the director of web agency PiXi Media. "The big issues for ICT are now editing and services."

Industry figures estimate that over 120,000 computers are sold each year in Morocco. This enthusiasm for IT equipment stems partly from the double-figure growth in landline, high-speed, and 3G internet.

By Rachid Jankari

© Magharebia.com 2009