IPM bags Maroc Telecom payphone deal

Maroc Telecom, the incumbent Moroccan operator, has handed a deal to Italian equipment vendor IPM to provide it with 2,500 card-operated payphones.

The agreement forms part of Maroc Telecom’s strategy to increase its presence in the payphone market, which, along with the mobile segment, has proved to be one of the main success stories in the country’s telecoms sector.

According to IPM sales director Jean-Louis Chachuat, the company delivered the first 500 of the ‘Rotor 2000’ terminals last week, after striking the agreement with Maroc Telecom officially on 14 April. The shipment will be completed by the end of June, he adds.

The Rotor 2000 models use a three-layer system that manages the phones from local, regional and national centres. The company has also prepared them to allow Maroc Telecom to add new functionality in the future, if it chooses to install the necessary software.

“Physically, all the payphones are prepared to work with SMS,” Chachuat says. He refused to reveal the value of the deal.

IPM originally supplied 5,000 of the Rotor 2000 devices to Maroc Telecom in 2000, when the operator began replacing its coin-operated payphones with terminals taking cards.