Lebanon and Morocco mobile costs top the table but don't stop user growth

Lebanon residents suffer from having the most expensive pre-paid mobile calls in the Arab region while operators in Morocco have the highest average cost of prepaid cellular minutes, a recent report from Arab Advisors Group has uncovered.

However, Lebanese mobile operator Alfa has subsequently announced a 15% to 50% reduction in tariffs and costs for post-paid lines in a bid to attract new users. Rival operator MTC Touch has, along with Alfa, decided to cut its rates in line with a government plan to increase mobile penetration.

Over in Morocco, the cost of pre-paid doesn't seem to be turning users off and the country's telephone network is set to expand this Saturday when more than 200 million additional numbers will be created to keep pace with demand for mobiles. National operator ARNT is to add an extra digit to the country's existing nine-digit numbers creating 200 million new mobile numbers and 10 million new landline numbers. At the current fee rate that will ring up some impressive numbers for the operators.