The Iranian government took a step forward in upgrading ICT infrastructure in underdeveloped parts of the country, providing over 1,500 rural areas with access to mobile network and internet services.
On the occasion of World Telecommunications and Information Society Day celebrated annually on May 17, Es’haq Jahangiri, first vice president, and Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the ICT minister, made the announcement during a videoconference in Tehran on Sunday.
On this occasion, they held a symbolic inauguration in Seyedan Village in South Khorasan Province, the ministry’s website Ict.gov.ir reported.
Thanks to the development, over 1.3 million people living in 1,500 villages can now access mobile data connection and are linked to National Information Network.
NIN is an independent network whose content is compatible with Islamic values, one of the most important components of which is the availability of localized services.
“The new connections increased the number of villages connected to NIN to 89%,” Jahromi said at the event.
About 93% of villages, with over 20 households each, have access to mobile communication and data services.
“The figure is expected to reach 100% by the end of the current Iranian year [March 2021],” he added.
About 93% of villages, with over 20 households each, have access to mobile communication and data services. The figure is expected to reach 100% by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2021)
Jahromi noted that in the last three years, high speed mobile internet access has been brought to over 4,200 rural areas around the country.
It was also announced at the event that 632 villages have been covered by the mobile internet network.
The officials said 4G mobile network is currently available in 4,142 villages, while 5,707 rural spots have been connected to 3G and 44,968 villages are still using the 2G network.
Telecom infrastructures for these villages have been developed by the Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran.
The efforts are in line with Universal Service Obligation plan, proposed by the ICT Ministry, which is aimed at providing broadband internet access to rural areas of Iran.
The officials believe that increasing the access of users, corporations and organizations to the internet can increase economic productivity and promote social welfare. Internet access not only increases traditional business activities and interactions, but also helps build novel industries and businesses.
However, different parts of the society, have different levels of broadband internet access, which is also referred to as communication gap.
Nationwide Push
In late August 2019, President Hassan Rouhani, who announced 1,000 rural connections in Sistan-Baluchestan, Kerman, Fars and West Azarbaijan provinces, said that in terms of convenience, all efforts are being made to fill the gap between urban and rural living conditions.
Villages and metropolises should be developed in tandem, so extensive work has been done and will be on track to provide all villagers with clean potable water, energy, health and communication services.
Experts in the field say that by bridging the communication gap between cities and villages, migration to cities will decline.
“People living in 63% of rural areas have access to landline/mobile telephony and broadband internet,” Mehrdad Torabian, director of ICT Ministry’s Office for Communication Services Development in Rural Areas, told reporters in September 2019.
“The telecom service penetration rate in rural areas has seen a twofold jump in the past few years. The figure was around 32% in September 2017, when President Hassan Rouhani was reelected for a second term.”
Torabian noted that in 2017, close to 9% of villages were totally deprived of any sort of communication services, which figure is now down to 3%.
Latest data released by the Communications Regulatory Authority show that currently, 83% of rural areas in Iran have access to landline communication services, which constitute 51,200 out of the total 61,700 villages in the country.
CRA also said more than 80% of Iranians have access to broadband internet services. The figure is equal to 66.1 million internet users in the country of 81 million people.
An internet user is defined as a person of age six and above, who has used the global system of interconnected computer networks at least once in three months.
Over 10 million landline and 55 million mobile internet subscriptions are registered in Iran and people hold 88.7 million SIM cards.
