These mobile phone users are distributed between the country's three operators, with Maroc Telecom on top, counting 14.3 million subscribers – from 14.63 million in March - representing 60.71% of the market share.

The rest is shared between Meditel with 8.63 million subscribers (36.69%) and Wana with 612,000 (2.6%), according to statistics published by the country's telecoms regulator “ANRT”.

Between March and June, Meditel and Wana saw the number of mobile subscribers increase from 8.36 million to 8.63 million and from 521,000 to 612,000 respectively.

For its part, the fixed telephony registered a quarterly growth of 5.64%, against 3.41% a quarter earlier, as the number of subscribers at the end of June 2009 rose to 3.27 million, the ANRT found.

Wana thus controls 60.27% of the fixed telephony market, followed by Maroc Telecom with 39.48% and Meditel with 0.25%.

The ANRT also said that the number of Moroccan subscribers in the internet service up to June reached some 962,685 people compared to 834,463 at end of March.

Maroc Telecom holds 59.42% of the internet market, followed by Wana with 31.35% and Medi Telecom with 8.9%.

Earlier this week, Spain's Telefonica and Portugal Telecom sold their stakes in Meditel to local shareholders, who said they are still open to selling a stake to a foreign investor and may list on the stock market.

Despite the international crisis, Morocco's telecoms sector is still an attractive one, as a number of international telecoms operators showed interest in buying Meditel stakes, including Qatar Telecoms (Qtel), Emirates Telecoms (Etisalat) and Oger Telecom, a telecom group controlled by the Saudi Oger Group.

For its part, Emirates Telecoms, which lost the bid for Meditel, has said that it is still interested in the country's sector, adding that it sees Morocco as a growth market.