Skip to Content »

Wireless Federation » archive for 'Morocco'

ANRT opens tender for third GSM mobile licence (Morocco)

  • October 30th, 2008
  • 10:43 am

The Moroccan regulator ANRT opens up a new tender for country’s third GSM mobile licence. The documents for the tender are available for MAD 40,000 from 3 November. Morocco, in May announced the plans to issue a third network licence. The winner will compete with Meditel and Maroc Telecom.

   

Nigeria becomes the No.1 mobile market in Middle East and Africa

  • October 10th, 2008
  • 5:58 am

The Nigerian mobile market has reportedly become the largest mobile market of Middle East and Africa in Q1′08, overtaking the South African market. The subscriber base has crossed the 50 million mark lately, and ended August with 55million mobile subscribers, says Engr Ernest Ndukwe, Vice Chairman of Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), becoming the 18th largest market of the world.

South Africa which is nearing the mobile penetration of 100% will be falling down to the third position in near future.

Iran has taken an upward leap from 6th to 3rd position by adding subscribers at a pace four times faster than South Africa. Following Iran comes Egypt with 30.8 million active mobile subscribers from 29.4m in March. This rise was driven by the arrival of new entrant.

Algeria and Saudi Arabia have fallen to fifth and sixth as Iran took a leap. Algeria at the end of August had crossed the 30.8 million subscribers, while Saudi Arabia had a total of 29.8million, the sudden rise comes only when nearly a million people come to visit Haj, leave the SIMs inactive once they leave.
Morocco, Kenya and Iraq, shared the same place during March. In August, Morocco stood at 21.4 million, Kenya at 14.3 million  and Iraq at 12.75 million. Tanzania retained the tenth position with 10.1 million subscribers.

   

Morocco’s subscriber base will increase from 23million to 26million from 2008 - 2010 (Morocco)

  • August 20th, 2008
  • 1:54 pm

Morocco’s telecoms sector is showing healthy progress, with mobile penetration rates growing. Nevertheless, it has been said the market remains far from developed and prices may need to be lowered, and the competitive environment improved, before the country can establish a customer base with maximum profitability.
 
MT reported a net income of around Dh8m ($1m) for 2007, up 18.7% compared to 2006. The strong growth was due largely to its mobile phone operations and better cost management. It also announced its expectation for profit growth of over 9% in 2008 with an estimated sales growth.

One of the most significant events has been the introduction of North Africa’s first 3G mobile phone licences. Wana heightened the level of competition in the mobile segment in March 2007, when it introduced North Africa’s first 3G+ service, also known as 3.5G, beating both Meditel and MT to market by nine months.

Notable highlights of the 3Q08 Morocco Mobile Forecast include:

  • Total subscribers in Morocco will increase from 23million to 26million over the forecast period of 2008 - 2010. The wireless penetration level will increase from 73.9% to 83%
  • In 2010, we expect that Maroc Telecom, Medi Tel and Wana will serve 65.4%, 32% and 2.8% of the subscriber base in Morocco. With Wana expanding the size of its operation, the leading player, Maroc Telecom, will be losing its market share slightly. Maroc Telecom’s market share will decrease from up to 66.2% in 2008 to 65.4% in 2010
  • During the forecast period from 2008 to 2010, we think that Maroc Telecom’s share of net additions will fall from 64.6% to 51% while that of Wana increases from 5.4% to 20.7%
  • Maroc Telecom will continue to enjoy a high EBITDA margin at 61.6% while MediTel is forecasted to have a 45% EBITDA margin in 2010
  • In 2010, Maroc Telecom is forecasted to register ARPU of US$ 13.4/month as opposed to US$ 7.9 for Medi Tel

   

Morocco’s mobile penetration grows to 69.43% (Morocco)

  • August 6th, 2008
  • 9:48 am

The number of mobile subscribers in Morocco grew to 21.412 million in Q2′08 from 20.616 million. Mobile penetration is now 69.43%, a raise of 11.61% since last year. Maroc Telecom won the race by adding up maximum new subscribers, as it’s base rose to 14.211 million in June from 13.697 million in March. Meditel grew to 7.201 million subscribers from 6.919 million.

   

Maroc Telecom HQ1 income up by 18% (Morocco)

  • July 31st, 2008
  • 5:49 am

Maroc Telecom first half net income rises with 18% to $618million, on revenues that increased by 10%. Moreover 11% year-on-year rise in six-month operating profit and raised its forecast for the full year. They are expecting overall 2008 revenue growth to exceed 8%, with an 11% rise in annual earnings from operations.

Maroc Telecom reports a 10% rise in H1′08 revenues (Morocco)

  • July 22nd, 2008
  • 1:07 pm

Maroc Telecom has reported a 10% year-on-year rise in first half revenues to USD1.985 billion  (MAD14.308 billion), reason being the continous growth of its domestic and foreign mobile operations.

Morocco passes 20 million mobile subscribers (Morocco)

  • February 6th, 2008
  • 1:34 pm

Morocco finished 2007 with 20.029 million mobile subscribers, up from 19.188 million in September and 16.005 million at the end of 2006. Mobile penetration has now reached 65.66 percent of the population, versus 53.54 percent a year ago, according to the figures from market regulator ANRT. Out of the total base, only around 800,000 use postpaid services, while the remainder are prepaid. Maroc Telecom has a 66.54 percent share of the market, while Meditel holds 33.46 percent. The number of fixed-line users meanwhile has grown to 2.394 million from 2.266 million in September and 1.266 million at the end of 2006. Fixed penetration rose to 7.85 percent. The number of internet subscribers rose 7.6 percent over the fourth quarter and 31.6 percent over the full year to reach a total 526,080 at the end of 2007. ADSL accounts for 90.6 percent of all subscribers, while plans for 256 Kbps make up 43.6 percent of all ADSL users.

   

Maroc Telecom reports Q3 operating profit up 13% (Morocco)

  • November 6th, 2007
  • 12:55 pm

Maroc Telecom reported third-quarter operating profit of MAD 3.510 billion, up 13 percent from a year earlier thanks to growth at its mobile operations. Revenues improved 18.2 percent to MAD 7.320 billion, helped by contributions from recent acquisitions Gabon Telecom and Onatel. In Morocco, the company added 1.1 million mobile customers in the quarter for a total 12.838 million at the end of September. Its market share improved half a point to 66.9 percent, while churn was up 6.2 points from a year ago to 26.6 percent. ARPU fell 8.1 percent from 2006 to MAD 109 amid price cuts and promotional offers. The fixed-line base edged up 0.9 percent form a year ago to 1.451 million lines, while the average monthly bill was down 3.7 percent due to competition. The ADSL user base increased 36.3 percent from a year ago to a total 443,000 lines. The operator reported 56,000 subscribers and revenues of MAD 15 million for its MVNO Mobisud.

   

Maroc Telecom 9M turnover up 19% (Morocco)

  • November 6th, 2007
  • 8:42 am

For the first nine months of 2007, Moroccan incumbent Maroc Telecom reported consolidated group revenues of MAD20.326 billion (USD2.651 billion), up 19% compared to the same period of last year, and consolidated operating profit of MAD9.509 billion, up 25.2% year-on-year. The telco attributed the performance to strong growth in its customer bases, especially mobile, both in Morocco and at foreign subsidiaries Mauritel (Mauritania), Onatel (Burkina Faso), Gabon Telecom and MVNO Mobisud France/Mobisud Belgium. In the third quarter of 2007 Maroc Telecom’s consolidated turnover amounted to MAD7.320 billion, up 18.2% year-on-year, whilst consolidated operating income rose 13% year-on-year to MAD3.510 billion. Moroccan operations generated nine-month revenues of MAD19.726 billion, up 8% y-o-y, and operating profit of MAD9.265 billion, up 25.6%. Mobile revenues accounted for MAD12.622 billion of the domestic total, up 16.9% from 2006, with the number of wireless customers rising by 22.3% compared to September 2006, to 12.838 million, after a net increase of 1.1 million users during the July-September quarter. Moroccan mobile churn rate reached 26.6% in 3Q07, up 6.2 percentage points compared to the year-ago period, while monthly blended ARPU stood at MAD109, down 8.1% year-on-year. Domestic fixed line and internet revenues amounted to MAD7.104 billion, down 5.0% year-on-year. At end-September, Maroc Telecom’s number of fixed lines in service reached 1.279 million, up 0.9% in twelve months, and its ADSL customer base reached 443,000, up 36.3%. At its Mauritanian unit Mauritel, a 51.1% annual rise in mobile customers to nearly 843,000 drove an 18.3% year-on-year rise in total revenues to MAD873 million in the first three quarters of 2007.

   

 

 

Vivendi acquires further 2% of Maroc Telecom (Morocco)

  • October 27th, 2007
  • 10:47 am

French media and communications group Vivendi has acquired an additional 2% of Morocco’s incumbent telco, Maroc Telecom, bringing its total stake to 53%. Vivendi said the acquisition was a share exchange with the Moroccan Caisse de Depot et de Gestion Group (CDG), which would acquire a 0.6% holding in Vivendi.