On April 21, 2026, Khalid Al Mouahidi reported that Morocco is embarking on an ambitious journey to enhance its telecommunications infrastructure. The nation’s three leading mobile operators have pledged an extraordinary investment exceeding 80 billion dirhams, which translates to roughly eight billion US dollars. This substantial financial commitment is a cornerstone of Morocco's strategy to expedite the rollout of 5G networks and ensure comprehensive broadband coverage as part of the broader Digital Morocco 2030 initiative. During a recent sector briefing, Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni, the Delegate Minister for Digital Transition, highlighted that 5G services have already been established in over 50 cities, serving approximately seven million subscribers.
The investment encompasses a wide range of infrastructure requirements, including radio access network equipment, fibre optic backhaul solutions, energy systems, and long-term maintenance capabilities. The three operators—Maroc Telecom, Orange Maroc, and Inwi—jointly launched commercial 5G services on November 7, 2025, after a well-regulated licensing process managed by the ANRT, which saw them collectively invest 2.1 billion dirhams for spectrum rights. Specifically, Maroc Telecom secured 120 MHz for 900 million dirhams, while both Inwi and Orange each obtained 70 MHz at a cost of 600 million dirhams.
As part of their licensing agreements, these telecommunications operators are tasked with achieving 45 percent population coverage with 5G by the end of 2026, with an ambitious goal of expanding this figure to 85 percent by 2030. Additionally, the minister announced that a second phase of the national broadband development plan is currently in motion, targeting 2,000 rural areas that were not included in the initial phase, which had already extended coverage to more than 10,690 out of a planned 10,740 locations across various technologies such as 2G, 3G, and 4G.
Concurrently, Morocco is making notable strides in its national fibre optic deployment plan, which aims to connect 5.6 million households by 2030. To facilitate this goal, the ministry has mandated that new housing projects and public infrastructure must integrate fibre optic cabling during their construction. Moreover, efforts are underway to promote infrastructure sharing among operators to minimize redundant investment costs and enhance the overall density of the network.
The scale and rapidity of this rollout position Morocco as a regional leader in digital infrastructure development. The co-organization of the World Cup 2030 and the overarching Digital Morocco 2030 agenda serve as powerful catalysts for this transformation. Officials have consistently referred to 5G as a vital horizontal enabler for various sectors, including industrial transformation, health service digitalization, connected logistics, and agricultural modernization, where robust connectivity is increasingly essential for maintaining competitiveness.
As reported by medafricatimes.com.
