Morocco’s Mobile Market Finds Its Footing Again as Fibre Picks Up Real Speed
Mobile subscriptions are climbing again, but the recovery feels more like a recalibration than a comeback
After a sluggish start, Morocco’s telecom sector is moving back into expansion. The second quarter brought a lift in mobile subscriptions, reversing the first-quarter slump that had unnerved some in the market. The national total rose to 58.75 million active connections by June, a 3.2 percent increase from last year, according to ANRT data.
That recovery, modest on the surface, marked a turn in tone. Operators added 1.36 million new lines since March, after losing nearly 900,000 earlier in the year. It was a reminder that even in a mature market, the balance between competition and pricing can swing fast once consumer confidence steadies.
Orange Morocco strengthened its position with a 34.7 percent share of total connections, edging further ahead of Inwi and Maroc Telecom. The latter, once the country’s unassailable incumbent, continues to see gradual erosion, slipping to 32.1 percent. The gap between the three has narrowed into a contest of strategies rather than scale.
Prepaid stability, but a changing base beneath it
Prepaid lines still define Morocco’s mobile structure, making up 86.4 percent of all connections. That share has barely moved since the first quarter, but the underlying dynamic has. Postpaid plans are slowly gaining ground as households and small firms look for predictability in data use. The change isn’t dramatic, yet it hints at a market where spending habits are becoming more deliberate.
The country’s mobile penetration rate climbed to 159.5 percent, up from 155.8 percent in March and 152.4 percent a year ago. The number reflects not just population coverage, but also the layered nature of mobile use — many subscribers now hold multiple SIMs for work, home, and travel.
Fibre gains momentum as mobile data matures
While mobile networks continue to dominate, the bigger surprise sits in the fixed segment. Fibre-to-the-home lines rose at their fastest annual pace yet, up 26.3 percent from last year. The quarter closed with 1.2 million fibre subscribers, following nearly 76,600 new additions since March.
For operators, fibre expansion has become both a competitive measure and a hedge. As mobile internet saturates urban areas, fibre is where long-term revenue lies. The growth is uneven — strong in Casablanca, Rabat, and parts of Agadir, but still thin in interior regions. Yet the acceleration suggests that fibre adoption is moving beyond early adopters into broader household uptake.
Internet penetration above 110 percent — and rising
Morocco’s internet penetration now stands at 111.8 percent, seven points higher than a year earlier. Most of that growth came from mobile data, which reached 38.33 million connections, up 5.1 percent. Within that group, 4G remains the dominant access point with 35.68 million users. The 4G Box category, essentially home routers using mobile networks, held steady at 1.2 million subscriptions.
The steadying of 4G Box use hints at a transition phase. As fibre becomes more available, the fixed-wireless segment may plateau — not because of declining demand, but because users are moving toward stable home broadband connections.
The long game for Moroccan telecom
Morocco’s telecom sector has reached a point where growth depends less on raw subscriber counts and more on service layering. Operators are under pressure to diversify revenue through content, enterprise solutions, and bundled data products. The consumer side is still driving the numbers, but the margins are narrowing.
Regulators will likely keep pushing for competitive parity among the three players, especially as the digital economy expands. The next front may not be connectivity itself, but integration — who can deliver both reliability and flexibility as data use deepens across everyday life.
The second quarter’s rebound might look like a routine correction, yet it tells a broader story. Morocco’s telecom market is maturing into a phase defined not by expansion alone, but by endurance — and by how well operators can navigate the fine line between saturation and innovation.
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