Mobile internet connections in Morocco continued to grow strongly year-on-year in the three months to December, increasing by 31.7 percent to 20.8 million, according to national regulator ANRT. While this represents over 5 million net additions in twelve months, the total installed base dropped by 2.0 percent quarter-on-quarter, as the number of connections declined by 416,000 since September. This could be a seasonal decline, after the growth linked to users arriving in Morocco during the summer period.
The ADSL market, dominated by Maroc Telecom (IAM), added 37,000 subscribers in the quarter and 96,000 over the course of 2017, for a total of 1.3 million at end-December. Meanwhile, fibre-to-the home (FTTH) connections experienced a three-fold increase, growing to 36,347 from 10,657 a year earlier. Including fixed and mobile internet users, the country’s internet penetration rate stood at 63.7 percent, up by 13 percentage points since the end of 2016.
Overall mobile connections increased by 5.8 percent year-on-year to stand at 43.9 million in December. Of the total, LTE subscriptions more than doubled to reach 6.8 million, from 2.8 million at the end of 2016. Postpaid subscriptions rose to 3.3 million, up by 10.4 percent from a year earlier and 2.7 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Market leader Maroc Telecom continued to lose ground, as its mobile market share dropped by half a percentage since September to 42.1 percent. Orange Morocco was roughly stable at 34.8 percent, while Inwi progressed to 23.1 percent.
Source: https://www.telecompaper.com/news/moroccan-mobile-internet-users-up-by-32-in-q4--1232624