Internet subscriptions rise in Morocco, while “quality complaints” show a decline
The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ANRT) has released updated statistical data for 2024 regarding the communications sector in the kingdom, alongside figures on mobile and fixed-line phone subscriptions as well as internet subscriptions, and the growth rate of domain names.
The updated data from the agency revealed that by the end of December 2024, the number of internet subscribers in the kingdom reached 40 million and 220 thousand, reflecting a growth rate of approximately two million subscribers compared to the end of 2023. Positive figures were recorded during the third quarter of the previous year, driven by seasonal effects.
These figures include subscribers to both fixed and mobile internet services, with “Inwi” and “Medi Telecom” (Orange) accounting for 69.24% of the total number of subscribers, while Maroc Telecom holds a share of 30.76%.
The proportion of subscriptions to mobile internet stands at 93.09%, whereas subscriptions to fixed internet represent only 6.59%, according to the data for the end of 2024.
Seventy-one point seventy-five percent of subscribers to “ADSL” services are benefiting from internet speeds of less than 8 megabytes per second, while 28.25% enjoy speeds exceeding 8 megabytes per second.
ANRT data also indicated an increase in fixed-line subscriptions, which have reached 3 million and 37 thousand, registering a notable rise from approximately 2 million and 874 thousand at the end of 2023. Maroc Telecom holds 54.35% of these subscriptions, while Medi Telecom (Orange) has a share of 26.13%, compared to around 19.53% for Inwi.
Consumer complaints
Regarding complaints, the updated data indicates that the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority received a total of 1,156 complaints against phone and internet services, representing a decrease of 14.24% compared to 2023. The agency described this figure as “weak relative to the number of subscribers to these services, which is approximately 61 million.”
According to the same source, 64% of these complaints were related to the quality of services provided by telecommunications operators, while the issue of “number portability” accounted for 12% of the total complaints processed.
The same data showed that the number of complaints received decreased from 322 in the first quarter of 2024 to about 270 in the third quarter, before stabilizing at 208 complaints during the last quarter of the same year, with an average complaint processing time of 15 days.
Detailed data revealed that complaints primarily targeted “ADSL” services, followed by fixed-line services, while there were few significant complaints regarding mobile phone services and third and fourth-generation internet networks. Individual consumers were the predominant complainants, with a decrease in complaints from legal entities like companies and institutions.
Domain names
The updated data from the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority also addressed the issue of domain names (ma.), which reached 123,891 by the end of last year, up from about 118,998 registered under the same domain by the end of 2023, indicating that 36,834 new websites were added within 12 months.
The same data noted that 93.7% of domain names are registered as “ma.”, while the remainder takes on other forms to distinguish institutional from governmental, academic, and journalistic domains, with the “co.ma.” format accounting for 3%, while the “gov.ma.” format holds a share of 0.7%.
