(Ecofin Agency) - Though far advanced in Africa in the telecommunications sector, Morocco’s population still has a very low access to fast broadband connectivity through optic fibre. The technology is still mainly reserved for companies, unlike its neighbour Algeria and several other African countries that are currently rolling it out for the benefit of their populations.

By generalising the access to the optic fibre, all these countries want to increase the broadband access rate of their populations, substantially improve their social and economic conditions, boost the development of their national economy through the impact of this technology on new growth segments such as e-retail.

Fully aware of these advantages for Morocco, the national telecoms and construction professionals organised on 20^th October 2015 the first edition of the symposium “Optic fibre and smart buildings”. The meeting which was held in Casablanca, supported by the Ministry of Housing and City Policy, in partnership with UNESCO, the National Real Estate Federation, the telecoms operators and manufacturers, was a setup for the exchange of innovative ideas to give the general population access to the optic fibre.

During the press meeting organised on 7^th October 2015, as a prelude to this symposium, Xu Xujing, Managing Director for Huawei Morocco, declared that “the optic fibre is not expensive, since its cost has greatly decreased. Today, its implementation cost is almost the same as with a normal telephone line. The only difference is that it is necessary to install the optic fibre infrastructure with the first civil engineering works”.

Ahmed Khaouja, ex-General Manager of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ANRT), followed by stressing that making the optic fibre available to all is a task which only requires “financing, investments and the involvement of all concerned parties”.

During the symposium, Rachid Naanani (photo), president of the EMC cluster, a advisory firm working on a building project for the first social housing with optic fibre in Morocco, insisted on reminding those in attendance that the optic fibre “is a current technology, not only for the future and any delay in rolling out this technology will only be an obstacle to the development of the national economy”.