The Internet

The history of the Internet in Morocco dates back to the early 1990s. Research universities were the starting-points for the development of the Internet in Morocco. “Mohammadia’s High School for Engineers” in Rabat was a pioneer in establishing the first national Internet connection to Morocco in 1993. At the very outset is Unix-to-Unix Copy, (UUCP) an e-mail connection to the global Internet via European Universities.³⁰ The first connection on the basis of TCP/IP was in 1995 through the Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, which marked the official birth of the Internet in Morocco.³¹

Like most Arab countries, the Internet was initially regarded as a research instrument for scientists to communicate with international scientific communities and colleagues. Typically, Internet access was limited to universities and research centres, to computer scientists for research communication at top universities.³²

The Internet has been available to the Moroccan public since November 1995. Its first widespread use was by students and researchers, who employed it for sending and receiving e-mails. The Internet’s diffusion in Morocco was slow primarily because

30 Mahdi Elmandjra, Progressive intellectual and human rights activist, personal interview with the author, December 22, 2001, Rabat, Morocco.

31 Elmandjra, personal interview.

32 Elmandjra, personal interview.

computers were still rare. Furthermore, Internet costs were quite high during these early years. Thus the Internet had to overcome these hurdles if it was to enjoy popularity in Morocco.

Meanwhile, almost all Moroccan universities and higher education institutes had been connected to the Internet via an X.25-Internet gateway operated by the ISP MTDS in Rabat. Eight national high schools, 16 regional pedagogical centers and about 35 training centers are wired. Almost all high schools (557) and secondary schools (790) can connect to the Internet through leased lines and dial-up. In addition, 312 primary schools have already been connected and the rest will follow by the end of 2003 (Jankari, 2002).

A considerable number of Points of Presence (POPs) were being established in minor cities and small towns. The number of Internet users is also spreading in small to medium cities and some villages, but Internet users are still concentrated primarily in the Rabat-Casablanca area.

In 1996 the average cost of Internet subscription was 50 USD per month (Rochdi, 2002). The cost of an adequate system for Internet access is beyond most Moroccan’s means. In early 1998, Internet access in Morocco cost about 40-50 USD per month for a subscription, which included fifteen hours online plus the cost of the telephone connection (approximately 2 USD per hour). By 1999, the average subscriptions had dropped to about 20 USD per month for unlimited access, with telephone charges remaining at about 2 USD per hour. In 2002, cost of a monthly Internet subscription dropped to about 6 USD per month (Rochdi, 2002).

The NTRA introduced competition with the hitherto monopoly of the telecommunications carrier IAM by allowing several Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to enter the public Internet access market. In 1997 approximately 20 companies were granted licenses to become ISPs.³³ In 1998 about 60 percent of the ISPs started their business activities and with their recent proliferation, there are about 130 ISPs (NTRA, 2002). In terms of the number of hosts, Morocco is now in the third position in Africa and the fourth position in the Arab world.

In 1996 there were about 50 websites, but at the end of 2001, there were 4500 registered domain names in Morocco (.ma, .com, .org, .net, etc.), with 3500 of them having the « .ma » extension (NTRA, 2002).

33 ISPs offer a variety of services, generally ranging from e-mail, access to electronic bulletin boards and such Internet features as the Use-net News-groups and electronic mailing lists , hosting and supervising websites.

Morocco’s first Internet café opened in 1996 in Rabat, with the NTRA issuing licenses for 50 cyber-cafes by the end of 1996 (Rochdi, 2001). Cyber-cafés have been mushrooming in major cities and also in small towns; however 42 percent of these cafes are located in the Rabat-Casablanca area. The total number of cyber-cafes increased from 500 in 1999 to 2500 in 2001. This is a 500 percent growth rate.

Cyber cafés have become favourite hangout stations and meeting places for Morocco’s Internet users, particularly young people. They are open to all, there is no age limit and the fees vary according to location, ranging from 50 cents to 1 USD per hour.

The increased competition has triggered a general downward trend in user charges, resulting in good prices. A recent study found that more than 50 percent of cyber-café are frequented everyday by between 30-70 persons (Jankari, 2002). A study conducted by the IEC Marketing in 2001, showed 58 percent of all Internet access in Morocco is via cybercafés (Pastore, 2002). The arrival of cyber cafés resulted in a popularity explosion of the Internet in Morocco. Many experts believe that Morocco is by far one of Africa’s most advanced countries in terms of the Internet. The widespread availability of cyber-cafés has triggered the competition (Elmandjra, 2001: 137).

Although the growth of the Internet began slowly, it is currently picking up momentum. Estimates put the number of Morocco’s Internet users at 10,000 in 1996 (Rochdi, 2002). In 1998, that number increased to 35, 000 which is about 0, 14 percent of the population. In 2001, the number of Internet users has progressed from 50, 000 in 1999 to 400, 000, reflecting a growth of about 700 percent (NTRA, 2002). According to statistics of the Moroccan Secretary State of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technologies, Morocco is heading to reach 1 million Internet users by 2005 (Jankari, 2002). Morocco plans to reach 10 million Internet users by 2010. Yet this growth is only hopeful speculation, since the number of actual Internet users in Morocco was only 1.3 percent in 2001. Still, over 3 percent of the Moroccan educated population has some form of net access.

In 1998, there were only 400 Internet subscribers (Rochdi, 2002). In 2000, only 7,000 Moroccan households had an Internet access, about 3 percent of households with computers. The recent data published on NRAT’s website gives the number of Internet subscribers at 53,000 (NTRA, 2002). It is estimated that the home Internet connections will increase to 150, 000 by 2005. The number of Internet subscribers does not take into account the possibility, but instead the fact that a single account may be shared by multiple

users. According to a study, 29 percent of Moroccan Internet users have Internet access at home (Pastore, 2002).

The use of the Internet remains the domain of relatively elite circle mainly of those who are highly educated. More than two-thirds of Internet users (71 percent) had a high school diploma or more. With regards to occupation, 20 percent said they were professionals and 20 percent of Internet users are university students.

In the early days, the use of the Internet was limited to males in their twenties or thirties with an engineering degree. According to the IEC Marketing, 70 percent of the Moroccan Internet users are aged between 21 and 35. Since 2000 the female Internet user-base has grown, supported by a new study that found that one-quarter of the Internet users are women (Jankari, 2002).

There is lack of research on the Internet in Morocco, but a study conducted for the NTRA found that 85 percent of the Internet surfers from cyber-cafes are chatters, followed by e-mail-users at 60 percent and entertainment at 50 percent (NTRA, 2002).

As elsewhere, the main use of the Internet today is e-mail-based communication. In 1995, there were about 2,000 e-mail users in Morocco and today, Morocco accounts for about 300,000 e-mail addresses. Some estimates say that 150,000 Moroccans have at least one e-mail-account.³⁴ As e-mail services become more widespread, it will also generate more users as well.

As mentioned earlier, although Morocco witnessed an important growth in the use of the Internet during the last decade. Morocco’s internet diffusion and use is still low by European standards, not to mention American ones. To promote the Internet diffusion, several hurdles need to be surmounted. Serious hurdles include the lack of adequate Internet infrastructures, the low-level penetration rate of PCs, computer illiteracy and the high-cost of Internet access. Other problems are Internet traffic “jams” and congested data networks, caused by limited bandwidth. Many Moroccans refer to the Internet as the

“World Wide Wait”.

Another key problem to consider is the content of the websites. Policymakers admit that there is a lack of useful Arabic content websites. While English is pre-eminent in the Internet, literacy in English in Morocco is limited.

34 Rachid Jankari, journalist of the Moroccan Portal and bloger, personal interview with the author, December 11, 2001, Casablanca, Morocco.

The regime had launched several campaigns to promote the use of the Internet in every aspect of daily life. It spent money on increasing the number of household computers and broadband Internet access throughout the country. The promotion of the Internet use was made possible by the grant to operate cyber-cafes in small and major towns.