An often observed and still unexplained feature of the high-m Alfvén waves in the terrestrial magnetosphere is their equatorward phase motion, in contrast with low-m waves. We suggest an explanation of this fact in terms of a model of wave excitation by an azimuthally drifting particle inhomogeneity injected during substorm activity. The azimuthal direction of the phase velocity coincides with that of the cloud. If the drift velocity increases with the radial coordinate, the particle cloud is stretched into spiral in the equatorial plane which leads to a radial component of the phase velocity directed toward Earth, that is, an equatorward phase propagation.