Morocco's cell phone market post record high turnover

The cell phone market in Morocco recorded a 242 percent rise between 1999 and 2001, the Moroccan state secretariat of post, telecommunications and information technologies said.

The department described the rise as "a strong evolution," ascribed to the increase to six millions of the number of subscribers up to last June. The pre-paid service share is higher than 92 percent of the global market, the source said.

Fixed phone sales recorded a remarkable increase of 64 percent, going up from $ 500 million in 1997 to $ 1 billion in 2001.

Despite this jump, the number of fixed phone subscribers stagnated at 1.6 million in 2002.

The number of Internet users also recorded an increase of 700 percent between 1999 and 2001, the source said, conceding that this increase remains "insignificant" as the number of Internet users per number of inhabitants did not exceed 1.3 percent in 2001.

The number of cybercafes increased from 500 nationwide in 1999 to 2,500 in 2001, which is a 500 percent rise.

According to the department, foreign investments in Morocco's telecom sector accounted for more than two thirds of overall investments in the country between 1999 and 2001.

Telecom operators' sales tripled in the same period, going up from $ 600 million to $ 1.6 billion, the department added.