The Iranian government is investing in the expansion of infrastructure related to information and communications technologies to boost the quality of life in rural areas.
The latest projects have been executed in West Azarbaijan Province to expand internet and mobile network coverage to 154 villages, ISNA reported.
The projects were implemented by Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran last month, with an investment of 600 billion rials ($2.6 million).
According to MCI, 106 communication stations have been established in the region to establish mobile telephony and internet services for the people.
There are over 2,800 villages in the province, with a population of around 840,000 people.
Local officials say the promotion of communication technologies facilitates everyday life for the public, especially during the pandemic.
In the north, work is on track to extend internet connection to rural areas in Mazandaran Province.
Last week, during a trip to the province, Morteza Barari, a deputy ICT minister, said around 200 villages will be connected with 4G internet in the following months.
“ICT Ministry says internet access in the area has grown by 35% in the past seven years. Currently, 75% of villages in the province are connected with high-speed internet,” he said.
ICT officials say more good news will be heard on development of rural communication and internet access by the end of the current fiscal year (March 20).
In South Khorasan Province, work is underway to connect 21 villages in Boshrouyeh County in the coming months.
Mostafa Behi, the head of the provincial ICT organization, told reporters that four ICT stations have been set up in Boshrouyeh to provide high-speed broadband internet for rural areas.
“The stations will become operational, as soon as they are equipped with the necessary gear,” he said.
Ladan Mahdavi, the head of ICT Organization in Markazi Province, said officials of the province have announced that since 2013, the number of villages with internet connection has tripled and reached 1,082, accounting for 93% of all villages in the province.
As planned, she added, more spots are on the connection list for the current year.
The ICT Ministry is working to provide all villages with over 20 households with access to speedy connections by March 2021, which are in line with the ministry’s Universal Service Obligation Plan for providing broadband internet access to rural areas.
NIN’s Role
Officials attribute these developments to the establishment of the National Information Network launched in August 2016 as an alternative and independent network with content compatible with Islamic values to facilitate the Iranian users’ access to indigenous content.
In December 2020, the ICT Ministry announced that it has established over 80% of the integrated network’s infrastructure through the expansion of fiber optic connections, establishment of communication stations and towers, and a surge in the number of data processing racks and data centers.
Deputy ICT Minister Hamid Fattahi said the completion of NIN will remove the deficiencies and poor quality of internet and mobile connection in rural areas.
He noted that the ICT Ministry has put maximum effort into boosting NIN’s performance by expanding the network’s data centers and data processing capacity.
In mid-September, the first phase of a major database was launched in Bumehen, east of Tehran, with an investment of 4 trillion rials ($17.39 million) by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Company.
The project is aimed at empowering NIN, expanding the country’s communications infrastructure and materializing a digital economy.
The database boasts a terabit per second storage and a computing capacity sufficient to run basic functional services, including email, messengers and search engines.
Noting that these basic services are vital for internet users, Fattahi said the infrastructure enables experts to develop local versions of today’s most popular services and gradually replace them, since a domestic database can reduce the cost and increase the speed and quality of services.
The database specified 100 racks and 500 servers to would-be local messengers and search engines. The capacity can be easily boosted, depending on the type of services targeted and the development of hosting and cloud computing infrastructure.
A rack houses servers, networking devices, cables and other data center computing equipment.
“The database has a massive capacity for boosting employment in private businesses,” he said.
In line with efforts to boost NIN’s function, major mobile operator MTN-Irancell launched a datacenter with 407 racks in late May.
Executed with an investment of 11 trillion rials ($47.82 million), the data center added a 25% data storage capacity.
Officials say the project is aimed at extending a helping hand to data security and independence, while contributing to the development of NIN in tandem with the digital economy.
Online Education
The National Information Network has also prepared the ground to curb educational disparity and offer free education to all students through online platforms.
By utilizing the integrated ICT infrastructures, officials have connected all urban and rural schools with high-speed internet, in order to give the school students of all grades access to online education.
According to the ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, with the connection of 44,000 schools in less-developed rural areas to the educational network in early October 2020, the number of schools with internet access has crossed 86,000.
“This prepares a strong groundwork for facilitating virtual education. The plan was expected to be completed by the end of last Iranian year [March 2020], but impediments in supplying equipment put off the work till the present,” he said.
Speaking to reporters, Jahromi said the ICT Ministry is also designing a project to provide high-speed internet access to all universities by the fiscal yearend.
According to the minister, the country has about 1,000 universities that will be connected to NIN via fiber optic.
Schools closed days after the coronavirus outbreak was detected in the then-epicenter of Qom, located in the central parts of Iran.
The use of internet in the last school year drew criticism, as many students in underdeveloped regions lacked the technological means to participate in classes.
Providing internet connection to schools has wavered for a long period, as the ICT and education ministries’ initiative last year to upgrade schools into smart educational centers was focused on putting an end to the long saga of educational disparity.
The agreement between the two ministries includes various measures, such as connecting all schools to NIN and equipping them with modern tools needed by students and teachers.
