Keeping in Touch from Morocco
Travelers are excellent planners; with everything there is to juggle when putting together a trip, organization and foresight are a major part of the wanderer’s skill-set. One piece of pre-trip planning that even the most seasoned travelers may neglect, though, is just how you’ll keep in contact with home once you hit the road.
In many situations, this is a non-issue (think of your weekend trip to Boston or that one time you spent an extra three days in Zurich). In Morocco, you’ll want to plan ahead.
Morocco’s electrical and communications infrastructure has improved exponentially over the past five years, due in large part to the King prioritizing technology in rural development. That said, your resources for phoning home are still rather limited, especially outside of major urban centers.
Very, very few Moroccans have the internet at home. This means that internet cafes, or cybers, as they are known, are just about everywhere. Rates vary wildly, but you can expect to pay anywhere from 4-15 Dh for an hour online (~ $0.50-2.00). Connections are usually good and should often allow you to send large files or use Skype, but be prepared for equipment that may or may not function properly. Also, be cautious when attaching USB or other memory devices to these public machines, as antivirus software is rarely a priority.
Again, you can expect quality to decline outside of larger towns, but it can vary wildly even within a small town. Ask around to see if anyone you meet can recommend a good place to get online.
While the internet may not be ubiquitous in Moroccan households, cell phones certainly are. You’ll see small children and little old ladies alike pull out their phones at the drop of a hat, and the cell network has expanded to meet the ever-increasing demand.
If you decide to buy a phone for your trip (which you will see for sale in nearly every roadside shop), look for a Maroc Telecom SIM card to go with it. This is the national cell network and is generally regarded as the largest and most reliable. Other companies, such as Meditel and Wana, are also widely available, but may not have coverage everywhere Maroc Telecom does.
You can buy airtime via phone cards, which have a code you can input via text message. Calling abroad is, of course, going to eat away at your phone credits rather quickly, but even a small card (20 Dh) should allow you to call another country for a few minutes. One perk is that Moroccan cell phones are only charged for outgoing calls, so if you give your new number to family elsewhere, they can call you and your credits can be saved for emergencies.
If you don’t want or need a cell phone, you can also visit so-called teleboutiques. These are small shops that hold payphones, and while they are not quite as popular nowadays thanks to the increasing popularity of cell phones, they are still easy to find. You need to buy a phone card (available at the teleboutique, as well as many shops) in order to use the machines, but they will let you call abroad without trouble.
If you choose to bring a laptop or wifi device with you, in many places you’ll find a signal with little problem. Many hotels and cafes have begun offering free wifi, and if you are sticking to larger cities on your sojourn, checking your email over a coffee should be little problem. For excursions farther afield, however, this is by no means a reliable—or even likely—option.
Finally, don’t forget to send a postcard!
