While the Moroccan telecoms market remains under-saturated, its three mobile operators –– both at home and abroad –– have experienced robust growth in recent years.
While the company performed strongly last year, registering a 17% growth in client base (to 7.4m) over the first three quarters of 2008, it began to falter as consumer spending slowed, resulting in a 1% annual increase in turnover for Q2 2009.
Meditel's focus on lower-income markets impacted their average revenue per user, which fell by 16%, but the resulting expansion of the customer base helped drive up the country's mobile penetration rate from 65.7% in 2007 to 74% in 2008.
MT has announced plans to create a fibre-optic network connecting the Moroccan cities Laâyoune and Dakhla to Nouadhibou, which would ultimately be extended to other North African countries.
Meditel and MT operated a duopoly until 2008, when the state regulator Agence Nationale de Réglementation des Télécommunications waved in Wana,[1][2] owned by Morocco's Omnium Nord Africain.
Earlier this year, Wana sold a 31% stake for €228m to the partnership of two Kuwaiti companies, mobile operator Zain and Al Ajial Investment Fund Holding,[4][5] to help finance the roll out of its 15-year 2G GSM network at the end of 2009.