Morocco’s 5G is already slowing down: -38% in six months

A few months after the high-profile launch of 5G in Morocco, the first series of measurements make it possible to compare the network’s performance at its debut with those recorded once the number of users increased.

The Speedtest data analyzed by Ookla are telling. On the day of the launch, the median download speed reached 261.7 Mb/s, compared with 44.4 Mb/s on 4G before the arrival of the new technology. During the first month, the 5G median rose to 266.94 Mb/s.

It then fell to 185.93 Mb/s in the third month, before settling at around 160 to 165 Mb/s during the following months. The gap with the first month thus reached approximately 38%, according to data published by Ookla.

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Among the four North African markets studied, Morocco recorded the steepest decline. In Algeria, the drop was around 16%. Tunisia and Egypt also experienced a decline, but a less pronounced one.

These figures do not mean that an individual user who went from 267 to 160 Mb/s necessarily lost 40% of their speed. Ookla measures the performance actually recorded during tests carried out by users. As coverage expands to new cities and more customers connect to 5G, the population being measured changes as well.

Morocco’s 5G still relies on the 4G core

However, scaling up remains a technical challenge. Morocco launched so-called NSA 5G, meaning “non-standalone.” The antennas use 5G technology, but part of the network’s operation continues to rely on the 4G network core.

As traffic increases, this architecture can place greater pressure on existing infrastructure. Karim Yaici, an analyst at Ookla, notes that in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, the combined median speed of 4G and 5G users even fell below its pre-5G-launch level after six months.

The phenomenon is occurring as adoption has been rapid. Two months after the launch, Morocco already had approximately 2.63 million active 5G users. At the same time, operators must continue investing to achieve the 5G coverage targets set for Morocco, with 45% of the population targeted by the end of 2026.

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For users, 160 Mb/s remains more than sufficient to watch a video in 4K, make a video call, play online under good conditions or download files quickly. The issue is therefore not that 5G has become slow, but whether it can maintain its performance as traffic increases.

The differences between operators also remain significant. In its April 2026 report, Opensignal measured an average 5G speed of 280.2 Mb/s for Maroc Telecom, compared with 198.5 Mb/s for inwi and 136.6 Mb/s for Orange. Orange nevertheless showed the best 5G availability, while inwi ranked first for video experience.

Morocco’s 5G therefore remains fast, but its highly capable launch does not guarantee that these levels will be maintained automatically. After the race to expand coverage, the next challenge for Maroc Telecom, Orange and inwi will be to preserve sufficient capacity when several million customers use the network daily.