At the time this article is going to press, leaders from around the globe are meeting in Tunis for the The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). As WiMAX is poised to becoming a viable access technology to provide connectivity to businesses and residential users, we have decided to take a closer look at Morocco, an African country with great potential for WiMAX in the midst of fixed access deregulation.

Interestingly, the 2 service providers who obtained a license in Morocco are illustrative of the broad range of customers interested in WiMAX. Meditel is a well established mobile operator in the country who purchased the 2nd GSM license while Maroc Connect is a green field ISP new to the wireless world.

MC= Maroc Connect

Meditel

Maravedis:  When did you acquire a fixed and BWA license at 3.5 GHz?

MC: We acquired the BWA license at 2.5 & 3.5 GHz on September 2005, 20th.

Meditel: We acquired the 3.5 GHz license on July 2005

Maravedis:  How much spectrum did you acquire? Is that sufficient to provide BWA service in a profitable manner? What are the exact bands?

MC: I can not give you the spectrum. But we have enough in each of the three bands, 2.5, 3.4 - 3.6 & 3.6 - 3.8 on all the territory.

Meditel: 2x14 MHz in the 3.4-3.6 GHz band

Maravedis: How long is your license for and is it national or regional? Did you have to pay for spectrum? If so how much?

MC: The license for spectrum usage is for 30 years. We have paid 35 MUS$ for that license (no other fees) but it was for a global fixed license (local loop, backbone and international, for all the telecommunications services.

Meditel: 30 years renewed every 5 years at the expiry of the 30 years. We paid for spectrum 150k MAD / year per frequency (total 4 frequencies)

Maravedis: Can you offer mobile services or only fixed?

MC: We can offer fixed services and restricted mobility in areas with a maximum diameter of 35 kms.

Meditel: we can only offer fixed services in the 3.5 GHz band but we are already a well established mobile operator

Maravedis: What markets are you after?

MC: Both residential and business markets

Meditel: Corporate first and Residential secondly

Maravedis: What is your deployment time frame?

MC: We plan to cover 60% of the Moroccan population in less than 4 years. We will launch trials in the main cities by mid 2006.

Meditel: We are planning a multi-year deployment through 2006-2009

Maravedis: What cities are you intending to cover? What about rural areas?

MC: We plan to cover 60% of the Moroccan population in less than 4 years including rural areas

Meditel: We will only address the largest Moroccan cities.

Maravedis: What is your experience with BWA equipment? Have you done trials?  Have you already looked at equipment vendors?

MC: Maroc Connect has no previous experience in BWA. We were mainly an ISP and IP VPN operator. Our access lines were based on Maroc Telecom infrastructures. We are currently evaluating equipment from various vendors including Alvarion, Aperto, Siemens, Airspan, Redline, ZTE and others.

Meditel: Paper analysis of course then field trials with equipment vendors. In particular, we are doing trials with one manufacturer but have not found the equipment to be very stable yet.

Maravedis: What are your expectations vis a vis WIMAX? Do you think it is on time to sustain your business plan?

MC: Yes we are very confident in WiMAX capabilities and particularly regarding the development announced on that technology. One of the main arguments is the CAPEX / user will be low enough to allow us to offer disruptive offers on the market.

Meditel: It is the technology of the moment and is particularly suited for operators in our position i.e.

Maravedis: What about the price of the CPE? What price points would make your life easier? What interfaces do you need?

MC: The prices of CPE's are still high compared to ADSL. But the prices are going to decrease quickly with the volumes. We expect CPE pricing between 200 and 300 US$ while 130 US$ would allow for more massive residential penetration.
In terms of interfaces, we will need Ethernet 10/100 MBT & POTS (1/4)

Meditel: Currently around a market average of 300 Euros. Life would be easier at 0 Euros of course but in reality prices below 100 Euros would open more doors as would vendor interoperability and certification.  There are plans to include WiMAX CPE's onboard laptops and this is a huge opportunity for us. Interesting interfaces would be Wi-FI and POTS. Ethernet 10/100 is already there of course.

Maravedis: Are you planning to offer VoIP? Is the regulation open to that?

MC: Yes we will provide VoIP services on WiMAX. Our license includes voice services with no restriction.

Meditel: Our whole network is VoIP.  The regulation is technology-agnostic.

Maravedis: What are the challenges proper to the Moroccan market to become a successful alternative fixed line provider?

MC: We are going to face to strong operators. The incumbent Maroc Telecom and the second GSM operator which has also obtained a WiMAX license but only in 3.5 GHz. One of the best arguments of Maroc Connect is to remain agile, with disruptive offers (technologically and on the price).

Meditel: Less Costs, Optimizing pre-sales and post-sales (Dead-lines, ...) , Improving quality


About the Author:

Adlane Fellah, MBA, is CEO and founder of Maravedis Inc.,  a world-leader in market research and analysis, specializing in WiMAX and broadband wireless markets. He is leading industry analyst who authored various landmark reports on WiMAX, broadband wireless and Voice over IP. He is a frequent speaker at leading wireless events and a contributor to various prestigious portals and magazines covering the broadband wireless industry including: Telephony Magazine, WiMAX Trends, WiMAX.com, etc&.

He is member of the Program Advisory Board for the World WiMAX conference since 2004 and a member of the Word Communications Association International and Broadband Wireless Association.

Prior to founding Maravedis, he held various positions at Harris Corporation in charge of market intelligence and business development for several product lines.