Buying a SIM card in Morocco

Face up to the fact – we are lost without our phones and above all our connection to social media, friends, and access to information on the internet. We can’t live without it – and that means data, and lots of it; whether for work or leisure. Whether you are in Massachusetts or Marrakesh, you need to have data on your cellphone to answer mails, calls, chats or simply to find out what the hottest restaurant is in Fes or Meknes.  

Sure, you can always track down wi-fi – increasingly common not only in hotels and Riads, but in restaurants and cafés, but we have all been in places where the connection feels like you are back in the noughties when that page does not seem to charge or that message just isn’t getting sent.

If you are thinking of travelling any given route through Morocco, at Dromedario Volador we sincerely recommend you pick up a SIM card at one of the many shops throughout the country, whether they be official service providers or small stores, because in truth you can pick them up anywhere – although many visitors opt for official stores just for peace of mind.

These are the most important network operators in Morocco:

IAM-Maroc Telecom,

Inwi

Orange.

But just how good are they?

IAM MAROC Telecom, possibly the best service of the three with best signal strength anywhere in Morocco.

They have a prepaid card known as the "Pass Jawal" (Maroc Telecom) and for 5 Dirham (just 50 cents)! You can recharge the card and get data. But, if you planning to be some days in the country, it would be best to opt for the 100 Dirham card, (just over 10US$). This gives you 5 GB of data, 120 minutes of local calls and 30 – 60 minutes of international calls depending where you phone.

Oh yes…one more thing – you can opt to have the card set up in either French or Arabic- so unless you can read the language, you really want to ask the people at the store to set it up in French!

The "Pass Jawal" SIM card can be recharged with the greatest ease – just dial 555 and right after dial in the card code. (It can be found on the back. Just rub off the foil with a coin to uncover the digits of the SIM, then dial asterisk 2 (*2) to be able to take advantage of any special offers).

The Sim card is activated instantly.

So, all in all, if you are planning to do a tour through Morocco, no need to worry about keeping in touch. Getting data on your phone and making cheap calls abroad is both cheap and straight-forward, if you one of the vast majority of us unable to afford the luxury of just being able to disconnect totally for a few days…or weeks.