It is a commitment of the government, but also a requirement of the International Football Federation (FIFA): 5G must be deployed in Morocco before the 2030 World Cup. According to the Executive, this technology should cover 25% of the national territory of by 2026 to ultimately reach 70% of the population. However, to date, no concrete announcement has been made, notes the magazine Challenge.
Citing sources close to the matter, Challenge explains that one of the main challenges lies in pooling operators’ efforts in terms of equipment, given the high costs of investments. During the previous World Cup, Qatar spent no less than $20 billion to deploy its telecoms infrastructure. Today, pressure is being exerted on the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT) to launch the 5G call for tenders. “Several meetings took place with major suppliers, such as Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson, as well as with relevant operators.specifies the magazine.
The urgency is palpable: the technical requirements linked to the organization of the World Cup require the acceleration, from this year, of a series of structuring projects, in particular the allocation of 5G licenses. The president of the Association of Users of Information Systems in Morocco (AUSIM), Hicham Chiguer, affirms that 5G will make its first appearances in Morocco during 2025. Morocco could thus become the first country to introduce this technology on the continent .
Technically, 5G will offer speeds up to 10 times higher than 4G, making it possible, for example, to reduce the download time of a high definition film from 1 hour 40 minutes to just 20 minutes. For the user, this means faster access to high definition audiovisual content and streaming games, a booming sector.
“But more than speed, it is the capacity to mass transmit billions of data, without congestion, which constitutes the main advance compared to previous mobile networks. 5G is often described as the technology of the Internet of Things, a world where equipment connected to the Internet will be able to interact with each other, without human intervention. we also read in the article.
The adoption of this high-speed technology first requires the generalization of optical fiber throughout the country. In Morocco, although this technology is already present, its coverage remains relatively limited. This delay can be explained in particular by the constraints of a particularly rigid regulatory framework.
The telecommunications law does not provide for the intermediate infrastructure of telecoms infrastructure operators. “This rigid framework prevents the sharing and pooling of these infrastructures. Certain public actors, which have underutilized optical fiber networks (such as ONCF, ONEE and ADM), cannot market them to other operators with high demand for telecoms connectivity, apart from traditional operators. For example, the ONCF has a 2,700 km fiber optic network, 70% of which is not used. underlines the magazine.
Par Lamia Elouali
12/17/2024 at 8:52 p.m.
