Maroc Telecom Faces Backlash After Reducing Data Plan Durations

Maroc Telecom subscribers were taken by surprise. The duration of a week granted for a 10 dirhams recharge giving the right to a 1 GB credit has now been reduced to only three days. As a result, the subscriber is forced to recharge again even if he has not used up all the previous credit. Similarly, the maximum validity of a week for the 5 dirhams recharge, which offers 500 MB, has been reduced to just one day.

On the web, Maroc Telecom’s 79.7 million subscribers are complaining about the deterioration of the company’s mobile Internet services, particularly the drop in Internet speed at night and the significant increase in the speed of credit consumption. These increases have allowed the historical operator to increase its annual consolidated turnover by 0.7%, it is said. In a press release on its results for the third quarter of 2024, Maroc Telecom reports that it achieved revenues of 27.4 billion dirhams in the first nine months, with a 15.7% increase in mobile Internet revenues. Its revenues from fixed telephony and Internet activities reached 7.4 billion dirhams, up 2.9% compared to the same period in 2023.

Certainly, gains have been made, but Maroc Telecom’s net debt has worsened, rising from 17.41 billion to 22.999 billion dirhams in a year, between the third quarter of 2023 and that of 2024, due to the company’s payment of the fine imposed on it by the courts, as part of its dispute with the company Wana. Last July, the Casablanca Commercial Court of Appeal had confirmed the conviction of Maroc Telecom for abuse of dominant position. The historical operator had a 10-day deadline to pay 6.4 billion dirhams in compensation to its competitor Wana Corporate, now Inwi, as damages. The payment "was made during the month of July, thus avoiding a forced recovery procedure that could have greatly damaged its image".

In January 2020, the historical operator had been fined 3.3 billion dirhams, following a referral by Inwi to the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT). The latter had concluded that the practices of the historical operator had "effectively prevented and delayed the access of competitors to unbundling and the fixed telephony market".