Internet usage spikes in Morocco during pandemic

Internet data usage rose dramatically in Morocco during the pandemic on the back of an increase in new subscribers of 4G and broadband, Morocco’s telecoms regulator said.

Data usage was up 155% to 8 billion gigabytes in 2020 compared to a year earlier, the agency said.

The number of subscribers rose to 29.8 million, which means that 83% of Moroccans are connected to the internet either through 4G or through fixed broadband.

 

Users of the 4G service in particular increased 30% to stand at 20.5 million people in Morocco where Maroc telecom has the biggest market share of 42.9%, followed by WANA corporate with 31.8% and Medi telecom with 25.2%.

 

Morocco has imposed a three-month long lockdown in the spring of 2020 to counter the pandemic and encouraged schools to teach from home using TVs and the internet.

Ministerial departments and companies were also encouraged to adopt the work-from-home method in order to protect their staff from contagion risk, which meant an increased demand for broadband and 4G.