Friday, June 24, 2016

Morocco's Telco Agency Forces Meditel to Stop Unlimited Calls Offer


Following on from the public outrage over the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) attempting to close down free VoIP calls on Skype, WhatsApp and Viber, the agency has set itself on another collision course with the public. The ANRT has ordered the Morocco's second biggest telecom provider to stop offering unlimited calls on its networks. This has many asking who is calling the shots within the ANRT

A source within Meditel says the unlimited calls will stop in early June.

This month Meditel has suspended its offer to a third of its customers during this month and will do the same for the rest of its subscribers during the next two months.

What astounds the public and telco experts is that the directive of the ANRT has been implemented by Meditel to the detriment of thousands of customers who had signed contracts in good faith to receive unlimited calls to all the telco's networks.

While no explanation was provided by Meditel on the reasons for its compliance to the request of the ANRT, experts believe that pressure was exerted in this direction by the operators competitors who sit on the board of the regulatory agency. If this is true then it is time to examine who sits on the ANRT board and resolve any conflicts of interest. It is interesting that another competitor, Maroc Telecom is now offering unlimited calls to fixed line phones through its MTBox Fibre network.

The ANRT's attempt to stop VoIP calls has failed to stop free Internet calls as hundreds of thousands of Moroccans, here and overseas, found technological ways around the blockage.


Maroc Telecom's optical fibre or "Fibre To The Home" has been rolled out and is now available in all major cities of Morocco.

After a successful experimental phase in pilot districts in Casablanca and Rabat, Morocco Telecom now provides service in all major cities of the Kingdom. Two speeds are available: 50 and 100 Mbps. Customers have the choice between an optical fibre access alone or one integrated with MTBox. MTBox Fibre allows unlimited calls to national fixed lines as well as 5 or 10 hours of free calls to national mobiles.

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