Telecom paper
Telecom service prices in Morocco continued to decrease in the third quarter, according to regulator ANRT. The average revenue per minute for mobile communications stood at MAD 0.28 at the end of September, down 15 percent on MAD 0.33 a year earlier. In internet services, ARPU declined by 4 percent to MAD 24 per month from MAD 25 in the third quarter of 2014. ARPU for mobile internet customers declined by 5 percent to MAD 17 per month, while ARPU for ADSL customers grew by 4 percent to MAD 95 per month.
In the fixed voice segment prices rose by 17 percent to MAD 0.90 a minute from MAD 0.77 in the third quarter of last year.
Mobile traffic rose to and average of 98 minutes per user, per month, up 6.5 percent on a year earlier. Overall mobile call traffic increased by 11.2 percent to over 14 billion minutes in the third quarter. SMS traffic declined by 26.5 percent to 4.29 billion messages.
The ANRT calculated that Morocco’s mobile customer base grew by 3.34 percent in the third quarter but by 0.43 percent versus September 2014, to reach 44.5 million at the end of September, for a 131 percent penetration. The regulator changed its accounting method for mobile customers at the end of September to include people on data-only plans. Mobile internet customers grew by 69.58 percent in a year to reach 12.81 million, while ADSL customers rose by over 15 percent to 1.08 million.
