Morocco’s Telecom Infrastructure Lags as 2030 World Cup Approaches

Failure to rapidly deploy 5G, considerable slowness in issuing the necessary licenses to telecom operators. Morocco is unable to catch up on its delays. The National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) led by Hicham Lahjomri "operates at an extremely slow pace, in no way corresponding to the speed required in several sectors involved in the 2030 World Cup projects," observes Rue20.

Last year, the government announced the imminent launch of 5G services. But telecom operators in the Kingdom are still waiting for ANRT to issue the licenses. Worse, internet services in Morocco remain among the weakest in the region and the most expensive worldwide.

Spain and Portugal, two co-hosts of the 2030 World Cup, are doing better than Morocco. While fiber optic is offered in Morocco at a price of 500 dirhams for a low bandwidth not exceeding 100 megabits, in Spain, a 1000 megabit speed costs only 19 euros (about 200 Moroccan dirhams).