How a mobile network is put together

The part you hold

A mobile phone is a small radio with a computer attached. The radio is useless on a public network until it has an identity the network recognises. That identity lives in a SIM, which is still often a plastic card, or in an eSIM, which is a profile stored on the phone. The SIM and eSIM note stays with those objects. Here, the point is smaller: the network does not see “you”. It sees a subscription that your phone is allowed to present.

If the phone is locked to one operator, a different operator’s SIM may be refused before any radio conversation starts. That is a handset restriction, not a judgment about coverage on your street. Check it in the phone’s settings, or with the seller’s paperwork, before you assume the neighbourhood is the problem.

The site you never have to visit

Your phone talks to a base station: antennas on a roof, a mast, or a discreet box on a building. The closest mast is not always the one in use. The phone and the network choose using radio conditions, load, and what your subscription is allowed to use. A mast you can see is not proof that your phone is attached to it. A mast you cannot see is not proof that you have no service.

From the site, traffic continues over fibre, microwave links, or another backhaul path toward the operator’s core. Congestion, a power cut, or a broken link can leave the radio bars looking ordinary while a page refuses to load. Bars describe the radio hop more than they describe the rest of the journey. The coverage note is about reading that distinction in real places.

What the generation names change for a person

Operators and phone menus talk about 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G. For a reader, the useful translation is about capability, not about a trophy.

• 2G can still carry a voice call or a text in places where newer radio is absent or switched off. It is a poor home for modern maps and video.
• 3G was the bridge generation for mobile data. Many networks have been retiring it. Do not build a plan of life around it still being there next year. Ask the operator what remains in the places you actually use.
• 4G is the generation most people mean when they say the internet on the phone works: messaging, maps, music, and video calls when the radio and the backhaul agree.
• 5G can offer more capacity and, in some designs, lower delay. It still needs a phone that supports the bands in use, a subscription allowed to use them, and a site that is actually on the air near you.

In July 2025, ANRT announced that the three mobile operators — Itissalat Al-Maghrib (Maroc Telecom), Médi Telecom (Orange), and Wana Corporate (inwi) — had received 5G licences, with coverage commitments that grow over several years. A licence is not a promise that your kitchen has 5G this evening. Treat a coverage map as a lead, then test the room. ANRT’s own operator list is on anrt.ma.

Prepaid, postpaid, and the label on the account

Prepaid means you pay credit in advance and service can stop when the credit or the included allowance runs out. Postpaid means you are billed after use, usually with a monthly allowance and a rule for what happens past it. Neither label tells you whether the radio on your street is strong. It tells you how the account behaves when you reach a limit, and what happens if a bill is missed.

Morocco’s mobile market includes a large prepaid share. That is a description of how many people pay, not advice to copy them. Pick the pattern that matches how steadily you can pay and how upset you would be if data stopped on a Tuesday.

Keeping a number when you change provider

Mobile number portability exists in Morocco, which means a number is not glued forever to the first operator that issued it. The practical questions are dull and worth asking before you start: can this exact number move, how long might it be unreachable, and which services (especially banking texts) must be watched during the move? Get the answers from the operators involved. This journal cannot see the status of a port.

The three licences, under the names ANRT uses

Shopfronts and licence documents do not always use the same string. Mixing them up is how people email this journal about a bill we have never seen.

• Itissalat Al-Maghrib trades as Maroc Telecom and is still widely called IAM. It is a licensed operator. The domain you are reading is not that company, and the address in our footer is not its headquarters.
• Médi Telecom trades as Orange.
• Wana Corporate trades as inwi.

ANRT keeps the public roll on its operator observatory. A line on that page means the company may run a public network. It says nothing about Hay Mohammadi, a ground-floor shop in Agadir, or the coach between Marrakech and Ouarzazate. We name the companies so you can find the primary source. A mention is not a ranking and not a suggestion to switch.

How a Moroccan number is actually written

Inside the country a subscriber number has ten digits and begins with 0.

• Mobiles in everyday use begin with 06 or 07.
• Geographic fixed lines begin with 05. The following digits mark the area. 0522 is Casablanca, which is why this journal’s own desk is 0522 260 960 from a Moroccan phone.
• Ranges beginning 08 and 09 are non-geographic fixed numbers. ANRT’s telephony note sets out which of them can move between operators, and the geographic limit that applies to a 05 number.

From abroad, delete the 0 and prefix +212. The desk number becomes +212 522 260 960. A mobile scribbled as 0661 23 45 67 is +212 661 23 45 67. Going the other way, Morocco’s international prefix is 00: a French mobile written 06 12 34 56 78 is dialled 00 33 6 12 34 56 78. Save the plus form in the address book. Apps hide the underlying number after the first chat, and a screenshot of a profile is not a copy you can dial from a borrowed phone. The call and message note walks through voice, SMS, and chat apps; this paragraph is only the numbering.

What the 5G licences of 25 July 2025 committed to

On that date the head of government validated the instruction report ANRT had prepared after a competitive call. Three companies were retained. The press release, still the document to read if you want the primary figures, states:

• Itissalat Al-Maghrib: 900 million dirhams including tax, for 120 MHz. Evaluation score 87.
• Médi Telecom: 600 million dirhams including tax, for 70 MHz. Score 85.
• Wana Corporate: 600 million dirhams including tax, for 70 MHz. Score 87.

Those sums are what the operators paid for licences. They are not the price of a handset plan, and copying them into a comparison of prepaid bundles would be a mistake. The same release says the coverage commitments should reach 45 percent of the population by the end of 2026 and 85 percent by the end of 2030, and that investment plus operating charges on the order of 80 billion dirhams are envisaged out to 2035. The call’s own floor had been lower: eight cities and their airports by November 2025, 25 percent of the population by the end of 2026, 70 percent by the end of 2030. The bidders’ commitments came in above that floor. A population percentage is still a national figure. It does not colour in a kitchen in Oujda, a platform at Casa-Voyageurs, or the road over the Tichka. Your phone also has to support the bands that operator has lit, and the subscription has to be allowed to use them. A city “on 5G” in a slide can leave a given handset on 4G, and 4G that finishes the task is the result that matters.

If ANRT publishes a later revision, the date at the top of this page is your signal to go back to anrt.ma rather than trust a frozen sentence.

Keeping your number: ask the line for its RIO

Mobile number portability covers prepaid and postpaid mobiles. You deal with the operator you are joining. You do not cancel the old line first, and you do not pay the old operator a fee for the move: ANRT’s telephony guidance says the request is free and the receiving operator carries the process. Since 13 November 2024 the identifier used between operators is the RIO, the relevé d’identité opérateur. ANRT described it as twelve characters. It records the donor operator, whether the customer is a private person or a business, and whether the contract is prepaid or postpaid. It changes if the number is ported again or if the contract type changes.

You obtain it from the line itself, at no charge, by calling 1234 or by sending a text to 1234. Accounts of the launch said the text of that SMS is the word RIO. If the voice menu asks for a different step, follow the menu on the day. Business lines can also ask their account manager, who sends the code by email. Hand the code to the new operator, not to a website that offers to “check your eligibility.” During the window, one-time texts from a bank or a delivery service can fail. Tell those services, or simply expect to wait, before you assume fraud.

A geographic fixed number in the 05 range can move only inside the area of the same code. Portability will not turn a Casablanca 0522 line into a Marrakech landline. The formal rules sit in ANRT decision 04/15 as amended by decision 18/20, and the plain-language version is on ANRT’s telephony page.

Separate the failure before you replace anything

A ground-floor flat in Aïn Diab: WhatsApp sits on “connecting,” and the status bar still shows a network name. Work downwards.

1. Read the icon. Wi-Fi and mobile data are different networks. A hotspot joined at a café last week will wear the blame while the mobile network is idle.
2. Place an ordinary voice call. If voice connects and every data app fails, look at the allowance and at whether mobile data is switched off. The bars are not the story yet.
3. Step onto the pavement. If the pavement works and the bedroom does not, you have learned about stone, a metal shutter, or a basement. The coverage note is that problem at the scale of the country.
4. Try the same SIM in a second unlocked phone. If the second phone fails the same way, the card or the subscription is involved. If it works, the first handset is involved: a carrier lock, a broken radio, a toggle. The SIM note separates PIN, PUK, and a deleted eSIM, which people regularly treat as the same object.

After those four answers, the operator that sends the bill is the party that can see the account. An email to this journal cannot. For a current tariff or a street map, use that operator’s own pages. For quarterly market totals, use ANRT’s observatory, not a number left behind in an article.

Continue with SIM cards and eSIM or coverage and signal. The whole shelf is in the index.