Mobile phone users on the rise in Morocco

The number of mobile phone subscribers in Morocco, currently standing at 500,000, is expected to jump to one million by the end of the current year.

Head of the national telecommunication regulation agency, Mustafa Terrab, who disclosed the figures in Rabat Friday, said the number of subscribers has been steadily growing since this communication means was introduced in 1994.

From 74,472 subscribers in 1997, the number jumped to 116,645 in 1998. The month of September 1999 alone recorded 170,000 new subscriptions.

Terrab told a news conference following the meeting of the agency's administrative board that after Morocco ceded a second GSM license to a Spanish-Portuguese-Moroccan consortium Medi-Telecom for $1.0 billion Maroc-Telecom, the state-owned company which enjoyed a monopoly over the sector, enforced several tariff cuts in 1999 and reduced by 50% subscription fees. Medi Telecom will will start operations next April.

He added that the agency, set up in 1997, will set up a "management committee" that will settle potential disputes between various operators in the sector.

Terrab also surveyed the agency's action plan, pointing out that it already received seven bids for three VSAT licenses that will be sold before the end of the year. The agency will promote other tracks such as call centers, which are job generating, and Internet where there are currently 450 Internet providers in Morocco, he said.