Internet Diffusion

 

 Overview- Internet Infrastructure:

·        Morocco’s telecommunications sector is modern, although just emerging from a monopoly in certain sectors. The national operator still enjoys a monopoly. Regulatory functions are carried out by Agence Nationale de Reglementation des Telecommunications (ANRT), which is responsible to the Ministry of Communications.

·        The country has a relatively advanced and widespread telephone network video-conferencing services to 25 countries and an X.25 service (MAGHRIPAC). Both analogue and GSM cellular phone services are available, with over 40 000 subscribers at the end of 1996. 

·        Morocco is a member of both Intelsat and Arabsat.  Morocco currently has both an analogue cellular network and a digital GSM cellular network, and currently operates three satellite stations providing national and international circuits (the Mohammed V station at Rabat, a station at Laayoune and another one at Dakhla). 

·        Office National de Postes et Telecommunication (ONPT), the national operator, was converted into a commercial company - Itissalat Al Maghrib (IAM). Long term plans are to float its shares on the Casablanca Stock Exchange.  Starting in 2000, the government is courting major international investors to buy between 25 to 50% of the shares and act as a strategic partner in running the operator.  An evaluation of the operator was carried out by Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan. JP Morgan has evaluated its capital to be in the region of US$5 billion. 

·        Other developments in the liberalization of the sector include the award of the second GSM cellular phone license to the Telefonica (Spain) consortium in June 1999. The first mobile license belongs to IAM, which operates both analogue (NMT 450) and digital (GSM900) networks.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (PTO)

 

1999

2000

Lines connected (PTO)

1 700 000

2 000 000

Equipped capacity (PTO)

2 000 000

 

Teledensity

5.5

 

Digitization Switching (PTO)

100%

100%

Total mobile subscribers

120 000

180 000

Faults per line/year (PTO)

0.25

0.2

Lines/staff (PTO)

75

82

Public telephones (Publitels)

22 000

 

Internet accounts

24 000

 

X25 subscribers

1 215

 

Internet Usage:

Morocco’s Internet area is dominated by Itissalat Al Maghrib (IAM).  This company controls most of the Internet access as well as it administers the ‘.ma’ domain.  IAM provides an international hub link at 8Mbps to the US, Italy and France.  It provides special telephone access numbers to ISPs to enable countrywide access at the cost of a local call.  IAM provides the international Internet hub for a large ISP sector. The majority of the 160 service providers are located in Casablanca, Rabat, and Tangier with others in Tetouan, Fes, Meknes, Marrakech, Oujda and Agadir.  Aside from the academic community and private sector, many of which have full leased line Internet links, access is also provided by SDNP Morocco and there is one store and forward service provider for NGOs.  

Statistics:

·        It costs three times the cost of a local call to access the Internet from anywhere in the country. 

·        There are estimated 25 000 – 40 000  Internet users.  Users are coming from various sectors of the Moroccan society, including public and private institutions, non-governmental organizations, academic sector, companies and professionals, in addition to private individuals. 

·        The Morocco Internet Society Chapter was the first to be established in Africa. With an active program of events, its large membership is probably the most representative of public sector networking in the country.

·        There is a growing number of Cybercafes.  They include: Groupe Open Casablanca, CasaNet Casablanca, Hotel Sheraton Casablanca, ACDIM Rabat, WebCafé Rabat, Café Multime-dia04 Marrakech, Marina Smir, Hotel Sheraton Fes, Agadir Avenue Hassan II and Cybercafé MaMnet Tanger. 

·        ISP charges range between 250 Dirhams and 500 Dirhams for a variety of packages for web and e- mail access. Initial set-up costs range between 800-100 Dirhams.

The Internet and electronic commerce also help existing businesses increase efficiency and profits, thereby generating economic growth. Key entry points to the Internet, e-mail and Web "surfing," serve as important sources of information exchange and idea generation for the private sector. Most of the Moroccan businesses have e-mail accounts and are connected to the Internet, although some businesses integrated these services into their day-to-day operations more fully than others.  For instance, only about half of the companies print e-mail accounts on their business cards, suggesting that the telephone and facsimile are still the primary modes of communication for many Moroccan businesses.

Major Providers:

Autoroutes de l’Information & Multimedia (AIM)

AIM was launched in March 1998 and started off as an Internet provider based in Meknes. It has five points of presence - in Fes, Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes and Marrakech - connecting the national operator’s Internet backbone with access speeds of 64kbps in the POPs outside Casablanca.

Azurenet

Azure Net started operating in 1995 as an information technology company and later launched full Internet services including Internet fax, web-site development and hosting. Some of its corporate clients are connected with leased lines from the national operator IAT.

Networking and Network Centers

·        National networking policy and the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) for the public and private sector is now the domain of the Conseillier du Premier Ministre responsible for IT, Mr Ben Kamouna.  The Ministry of Education is also now taking a leading role in networking among teaching institutions. Fourteen universities and higher education institutes have been connected to the Internet via an X.25- Internet gateway operated by the ISP MTDS in Rabat with support from USAID. 

·        The Ministere de l’Education Nationale and the Ministere de l’Enseignement Superieur, de la Recherche Scientifique et de la Formation des Cadres are responsible for universities and other centers of higher education. 

·        The Prime Minister’s office, in conjunction with the Ministere d’Enseignement Superieure et de la Recherche and the PTO, has established a 2Mbps backbone for all nine provincial capitals. Access will be provided at cost for the academic/research sector and schools. 

·        The Centre national de documentation (CND) has a broad mandate covering many areas relating to ICT policy in the country. It is attached to the Ministry of  Planning and is officially charged with establishing a science and technology information network as well as collecting, processing and diffusing scientific and technical information concerning the social and economic development of the country. CND also provides guidance in the application of ICTs for government, parastatal and public institutions and local collectives.  CND uses MINISIS to automate its documentation center. It has developed a multidisciplinary thesaurus in French (MAKNAZ) and a number of other databases -MAALAMA, MUTUN and RACID. A regional and sectoral decentralisation  programme is in place at CND, which has seen 20 database access points in the seven regions of the country.  

·        The Université Mohammed V in Rabat hosts the Ecole Mohammadia d’Ingenieurs (EMI), which is the RINAF focal point and one of the leading networking organizations in the country.  Aside from scientific and technical research and network service provision, EMI also provides continuing education courses and is also the focal point for the regional Arab network - RAITNET. 

·        The Department Information of Management has a software laboratory and a networks and systems laboratory. EMI has accords with over 30 universities and schools in Africa, Europe and North America, and is the local partner in many projects supported by international development agencies. EMI also has contracts to assist in informatics and network development from many government departments. EMI is a contributor to La Francophonie’s ICT Breves news service The school has been developing a scientific research network called Chabaka du Maghrib (CHAMA), which is also aimed at engaging expatriate Moroccan researchers.  The network links the Ecole des Sciences de l’Information (ESI), Rectorat de l’Université Mohamed V, Centre national de coordination et de planification de la recherche scientifique and the Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA). This was initially seen as the first stage of a dedicated science and technology information network; however ,with the advent of the national high speed Internet backbone, it is likely that institutions will now connect directly to it instead.  The general use of Arabic in the country has limited the take-up of ICTs. One of the measures being taken to address this is the establishment of a regional information network in Arabic in collaboration with the countries of the League of Arab States. 

·        The Ministry of Environmental Affairs hosts the national SDNP with support from UNDP and broad participation from UNFPA, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Public Works, the PTO, Ministry of Public Health, Centre national de documentation (CND), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Centre for Remote Sensing (CRTS). SDNP Morocco has also established a comprehensive web server, provides e-mail access and holds regular training sessions.  

·        The Ecole des Sciences de l’Information (ESI) has an extensive ICT training program, which attracts a number of students from other countries in the region, as well as a large documentation center. It also has links with schools of information science at universities in Pittsburg, Montréal and Sheffield, UK. 

·        The Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Informatique et d’Analyse des Systemes (ENSIAS) in Rabat held a workshop in 1997 on new technologies of databases, the web and data warehousing with assistance from INRIA, which is also assisting ENSIAS with a more general plan to train the trainers in IS.

·        The University Ibnou Zhor de Agadir is the Las Palmas Chair focal point for establishment of a system for improving access to scientific documentation, in collaboration with the Polytechnical University for Valencia, Spain. 

·        The Royal Centre for Remote Sensing (CRTS) is responsible for the distribution of satellite images in the Kingdom.  The Center conducts training courses and has contracts with a number of satellite image distributors including Spot Image in France for spot data and Eurimage in Italy for  LANDSAT, NOAA, ERS and IRS data, etc. CRTS is also responsible for centralizing the national archives of satellite data and data from projects using spaceborne remote sensing. CRTS is coordinating Moroccan efforts to set up the Cooperation Information Network (COPINE) project launched by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Morocco has also established the Regional Center for Space Science and Technology Education at EMI. 

·        A Center Syfed has been established by AUPELF-UREF in Rabat providing free access to the public sector.

·        ORSTOM/RIO has installed a node at EMI and another ORSTOM/RIO node has been set up at the Institutional de recherche agronomique (INRA). 

·         The UNECA’s North Africa Subregional Development Center is located in Tangiers. One of its objectives is to facilitate networking and information exchange by providing for public sector, civil society and private sector development partners to interact at the regional level and share experiences.


Country Background

Telecommunications Infrastructure

Industrial Production

Internet Diffusion

Electronic Commerce

Hardware Manufacturing

Software Development

IT Labor Market

IT Geographic

Government policies

Analysis: IT strength/Weakness

Analysis: IT Impacts on Business

Reference

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