“Borrowing” WiFi from your neighbors: Moroccans rank 4th in the world

According to a study, Moroccans rank fourth in the world when it comes to “borrowing” or “stealing” their neighbors’ Wi-Fi connection. However, the proponents of this practice are essentially European.

According to a study by the Global Consumer Survey by the German statistics platform Statista, the Moroccans and Swiss ranked fourth in the ranking of countries that use their neighbors’ WiFi network, with a positive response rate of 9% of the population.

Morocco is the only African country on the list, which could also be explained by the very high internet penetration in the country. While the average Internet penetration rate in 2010 on the African continent was only 9.3%, 52% of Morocco’s population were classified as Internet users.

In 2020, the percentage of the population using the Internet was highest in Africa, followed by Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and South Africa, all these countries that, despite remarkable progress, acted as exceptions for the other countries of the continent.

The Statista study was conducted among adults in several countries between 2021 and 2022 and had between 1,000 and 7,000 respondents. It showed that the main users of neighbors’ Wi-Fi were Europeans, with Dutch and Belgians at the top, followed by Mexicans, reaching 14%, in the top three.

For some of the respondents, this phenomenon is explained by colocation and renting, where the owner pays for Internet access or one of the co-tenants has signed the service contract with the Internet operator.

For others, it’s about sharing WiFi with neighbors or using their internet connection without their knowledge. 16% in Belgium and the Netherlands admit to using a third party’s internet (neighbor or owner) at home.

“That’s more than double the rate in neighboring France and Germany, where 6% and 7% of internet users respectively admit to having broken into a nearby wireless network.”states Statista.

The same source emphasizes that “the reasons for these discrepancies are not fully apparent from reading the survey data alone”.

And to add that breaking into an encrypted WiFi network may or may not be considered a criminal offense depending on the country.

The case of the Netherlands is interesting because the country does not consider stealing WiFi connections to be a crime, which is not the case in France, for example.

“We find that, overall, it is Europeans who like this practice the most, while the United States and China have the lowest rates of internet users using their neighbors’ Wi-Fi (3% and 2%, respectively).”says the German company.