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Opinion: WhatsApp Ban A Step Backwards For Moroccan Economy

Opinion: WhatsApp Ban A Step Backwards For Moroccan Economy

From HowWeMadeItInAfrica. Story by Mounia Bendraoui, senior analyst at Infomineo, a business research company focusing on Africa and the Middle East.

In the first week of January 2016, Internet users all over Morocco found issues making calls through free applications such as Skype, Viber, Tango, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp using their 3G and 4G Internet connections.

A few days later the Moroccan telecommunications regulation agency, the ANRT, made an official statement confirming that the most widely-used Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services would be blocked by the three Moroccan telecom service providers.

The ban received a significant negative reaction from Moroccans and expatriates who have been using these Internet call services for personal or professional purposes.

VoIP is a phone service transmitted over a digital network. This technology is commonly used for voice, video and data conferencing and quickly became popular because of the lower cost (compared to traditional phone calls) and convenience thanks to its functionality.

VoIP services are cost effective and allow both corporate and individual customers to operate calls while avoiding costs incurred using traditional phone services.

According to a market report published by Transparency Market Research, the global VoIP services market was valued at US$70.9 billion in 2013 and is expected to reach $136.76 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 9.7 percent from 2014 to 2020.

This trend has led to a decline in prices for basic voice and data services and had a huge impact on generated revenues for the global telecom industry. Indeed, according to research published by Ovum in 2014, the industry will lose a combined $386 billion between 2012 and 2018.

Concerning consumers, the use of VoIP will grow at an annual rate of 20 percent between 2012 and 2018. This global demand will be sustained thanks to Internet penetration, development of wireless devices and continuous prevalence of social media.

While some companies have been trying to deal with the increasing growth of VoIP apps worldwide by adjusting to their customers’ needs and building new innovative approaches (Swisscom launched new mobile tariffs with unlimited national voice, SMS), many have attributed the loss of revenues to the increasing use of VoIP apps, which led many countries to block these services.

 

The ANRT said “In addition to the losses for the telecoms national market, the free Internet voice calls do not respond to the required legal gateway, therefore their suspension came in conformity with the operators’ obligations that were underlined in their licenses.”

While VoIP has not yet been made illegal in Morocco, it is clear that ANRT regulation will try to maintain limitations concerning mobile apps use. The main reasons highlighted remains the non-conformity to the regulatory framework and absence of licence permits of mobile apps such as Viber, WhatsApp and Skype.

The real impact of the VoIP ban cannot be measured yet, however, we can still assume that the Moroccan economy could be directly affected by this decision on many levels.

Morocco has launched various economic and industrial programmes aimed at developing six key sectors: offshoring, automobile, textile, food industry, electronic and aeronautic.

VoIP offshoring

The offshoring sector is dedicated to the promotion of Morocco as an attractive destination for outsourcing services, including call centers, many of which are depending on VoIP services.

The ban of VoIP apps could impact the operating costs of companies in the sector and decrease the competitive advantage of the country in terms of telecom prices.

While this decision can still be considered as legal, it might represent a step backward for the development of the country.

Read more at HowWeMadeItInAfrica.