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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)
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. AzurenetAzure 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. |
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