Iran's Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies has poured heavy investment in expanding ICT infrastructure across the country to improve the quality of life in rural regions.
The latest initiatives to expand internet and mobile network coverage in underdeveloped regions were completed in six villages of Fars Province, increasing telecom accessibility to 98%, IRNA reported.
The villages are in Firouzabad, Khonj, Kharameh, Kazeroun and Mamasani counties, according to Mehrdad Sohrabi, the head of the provincial ICT office.
“The communication infrastructure has been developed by the Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran, providing over 1,350 households with high-speed mobile data access,” he said.
Sohrabi noted that MCI has built 230 communication stations in the rural areas of Fars and also significantly increased the province's road communication coverage.
Fars has a population of 4.8 million, with 1.4 million living in villages.
“Sanctions imposed by the United States delayed the execution of ICT projects, while project managers have done an outstanding job in overcoming the constraints,” he added.
Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, former ICT minister, said in July that 96% of Iranian villages with more than 20 homes had access to the internet.
He noted that promotion of communications technologies makes life easier for people, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“ICT expansion plays a crucial part in people's lives. Over 13 million students, 1 million instructors, 4 million university students and 140,000 academics are using online educational facilities across the nation,” he said.
“The internet and social media have become such an integral aspect of life and the economy. Almost all small and major businesses are using various online platforms to expand their businesses.”
Emphasizing that communication justice is part of social justice, Jahromi said maximum effort has been made for expanding the country’s ICT infrastructures.
NIN’s Role
Officials attribute these developments to the establishment of 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.
Hamid Fattahi, the former deputy ICT minister, said the completion of NIN will help remove deficiencies and improve the quality of internet and mobile connection in rural areas.
He noted that 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 2020, the first phase of a major database was launched in Bumehen, east of Tehran, with an investment of 4 trillion rials ($15.62 million) by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Company.
The project was aimed at empowering NIN, expanding the country’s communications infrastructure and materializing a digital economy.
The infrastructure 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 ($43 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.
