More speed, same price… and new, more affordable offers to top it off! The recent boost from Moroccan telecom operators for their fiber customers has made more than a few people happy. The move initiated on April 20 by Maroc Telecom was quickly followed by its competitors, Inwi and Orange Maroc. Now, the one million fiber-optic subscribers enjoy faster internet speeds for the same price — a shift aligned with the digital transformation that the government has been actively promoting.

While this improvement is certainly welcome for consumers, it also sheds light on pricing that remains relatively high. For how long were operators in a position to remain profitable while doubling their subscribers’ internet speeds at the same price? The question remains open. Moreover, even with the price reductions, how does fiber subscription in Morocco stack up against prices abroad? And what are the justifications behind the pricing policies of our three operators?

Everyone has their price

Let’s take a closer look at the prices currently charged in Morocco. Since its launch in 2014 by Maroc Telecom, fiber has slowly but surely made its way into the homes of one million Moroccans — a figure that remains relatively low compared to the nearly 40 million active mobile connections in the country.

On the matter of cost, here is a summary table — shown in U.S. dollars for comparison purposes — of the current prices on Morocco’s telecom market.

Expensive? Affordable? Let’s compare with the prices charged in Morocco’s immediate neighborhood — namely Algeria and Tunisia — as well as with those in Spain, France, and Canada, where many Moroccans living abroad (MREs) have settled.

From this chart, several takeaways emerge. First, the basic cost of internet access in Morocco is roughly in line with the regional average. For the equivalent of $26.90, a resident in the Kingdom can subscribe to a connection.

In Tunisia ($14.70) and Algeria ($16.60), residents can access the same internet speed for a lower price. However, in Canada ($55.70), Spain ($34.00), and France ($28.40), the entry-level fiber packages remain more expensive. It’s important to note, though, that while Maghreb countries offer entry-level speeds of 20 Megabits per second (Mb/s), the starting offers in Canada are at 50 Mb/s, in Spain 300 Mb/s, and in France 2000 Mb/s — that is, 2, 6, and 100 times faster, respectively.

Prices relative to cost of living

But comparison alone isn’t enough. To make the chart meaningful in assessing the real cost of a fiber subscription in each country, TelQuel calculated its price relative to the guaranteed minimum wage (SMIG). For Morocco, here are the results obtained:

This table was repeated for all the countries in which TelQuel evaluated the subscription cost relative to the cost of living. Here is the result obtained:

Once again, the chart shows a clear disparity between the prices charged north and south of the Mediterranean. In the Maghreb, to access a 20 Mb/s internet connection, a minimum-wage earner would have to spend between 8% of their income (in Tunisia and Morocco) and 11% (in Algeria) per month. From there, the curve becomes more complex for Morocco.

In Algeria, the curve remains relatively stable, increasing by just 1% per speed tier, reaching 21% of the minimum wage for a 1.2 Gb/s connection. In Morocco, the curve is exponential. It starts relatively low compared to its eastern neighbor, but as subscription speeds rise, the user must spend significantly more in relation to income — up to nearly a third of the SMIG for a 1 Gb/s plan. Tunisia fares even worse. While the 20 Mb/s plan remains accessible, a Tunisian minimum-wage earner would have to go into debt every month to afford a 1 Gb/s subscription, which costs 116% of the legal minimum wage.

In the other countries analyzed, high-speed fiber remains very accessible to those earning the least. In Spain, subscriptions range between 2% and 4% of the minimum wage; the same applies in France and Canada, where costs vary between 3% and 5%.

One could argue that not all Moroccans earn the minimum wage, and that for a more accurate analysis, a more median index would be needed. For a more comprehensive comparison, TelQuel used a second indicator to assess the disparities: monthly GDP per capita.

The disparities become even more pronounced when comparing prices relative to GDP per capita. Tunisia and Morocco, in particular, are deep in the red. Using this index as a benchmark, the share of GDP per capita needed to access high-speed internet can reach 33.5% in Morocco, and even 58.4% in Tunisia.

For a connection five times faster in France — to take the most striking example — the share of internet subscription in relation to GDP per capita drops to 0.76%, thanks in large part to the offering from Free, a company that has pursued an aggressive pricing policy since entering the telecom market.

So how can these price and speed gaps be explained? Are operators taking advantage by overcharging for fiber service? Contacted by TelQuel, a telecom infrastructure expert, speaking off the record, lays out the challenges that justify this pricing model. “We need to put the price issue in Morocco into perspective. Compared to Sub-Saharan Africa, prices aren’t as high as they seem,” he says. According to the expert, the larger the country, the higher the deployment and maintenance costs. That’s why prices remain high in places like Canada, where vast territory must be covered, including sparsely populated areas.

Moreover, in Morocco’s case, the market size is more modest than that of developed economies. As a result, economies of scale are not possible, and costs may remain high. “The real differentiating factor in Morocco — aside from price — is the quality of customer service. And we’re seeing how operators are competing with one another when it comes to fiber,” the expert explains. Still, the market awaits the arrival of a Moroccan Xavier Niel to revolutionize the pricing structure…

Written in French by Marin Daniel Thézard and Zakaria Choukrallah, edited in English by Eric Nielson