Reuters
by Aziz El Yaakoubi
Morocco has stopped calls made through mobile internet connections, the national regulator announced, a move that could boost voice revenues for local telecom operators.
The ban will apply to the three mobile operators in Morocco who offer internet access for computers via USB and other mobile modems, as well as via mobile phones.
Morocco is following other countries in the region such as Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Protests started few days ago on social media against the move with local media speculating whether security controls were behind the ban.
The Telecommunications Regulatory National Agency, known as ANRT, said telecom services such as phone calls need licences whether they are Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or others.
“In addition of the losses for the telecoms national market, the free internet voice calls do not respond to the required legal gateway,” ANRT said on Thursday.
ANRT had tolerated internet voice calls for years but the drop in call volumes, mainly international calls, might explain the decision.
Morocco’s telecoms market is dominated by Maroc Telecom , majority owned by the UAE’s Etisalat, French group Orange’s local affiliate Medi Telecom (Meditel) and Wana Corporate, a subsidiary of the royal holding SNI.
The ban would affect the two most used applications in Morocco Skype and WhatsApp, along with Viber and other providers of VoIP services.
“Their suspension (VoIP) came in conformity with the operators’ obligations that were underlined in their licences,” it added.
Mobile phone market penetration is running at around 140 percent of Morocco’s 34 million population, and the country had 10 million Internet subscribers by the end in 2015, up more than 60 percent from 2013.
(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
(Credit: Marie Waldmann/ Photothek/ Getty Images)
