Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran, also known as MCI or Hamrahe Avval, launched the fifth generation of internet for the first time in Iran on Kish Island.
Kish residents have started receiving the 5G mobile network service in the airport and Kish International Convention Center since May 11.
Concurrent with the third day of the KITEX 2022 International Exhibition, the fifth generation of internet was set up in Kish with the theme "Touch the Digital World” in the presence of digital players.
MCI, a leading digitization operator that has participated in the KITEX 2022 International Exhibition with its affiliated companies and startups, announced plans to develop new communication platforms in all parts of the country, the news portal of Ebinew.com reported.
With the official operation of 5G on its network, MCI was able to achieve a speed of 3.633 Gbps and set the highest internet speed record in Iran. This operator started developing 5G technology in the fiscal 2016-17.
The mobile phone operator has also launched seven 5G sites in the cities of Mashhad and Qom, as well as Tehran wherein lies the capital.
Currently, Kish residents can get access to 5G internet, the latest communication technology, that has been commissioned and optimized by domestic experts and technicians.
Subscribers whose phones or tablets can support the 5G internet can use this technology. But if they do not have a fifth generation phone, they can connect to the MCI network through a modem and Wi-Fi service and enjoy the benefits of this technology.
While mobilizing this technology and making extensive efforts for its localization, MCI has not neglected the main applications of 5G. For the first time in Iran, important demos such as "Remote Surgery", "Virtual Reality" and "Gaming Testing" were shown to the media and gamers, and their performance quality was approved.
MCI, Iran’s first and largest mobile phone operator, plans to offer 5G mobile network in other parts of Iran as well in the near future.
63% of Fixed Internet Users Have Less Than 10 Mbps Speed
The latest regulatory report on the status of information and communications technology in Iran, based on the statistics of the last month of the previous fiscal year (ended March 20, 2022), indicates that the internet speed provided to users was far from desirable.
This is while figures show that the mobile and fixed internet penetration rates have increased during the period, Communications Regulatory Authority reported.
Data quoted by the regulatory report show that during that month, 63.5% of home fixed internet subscribers had access to speeds of 10 megabits per second or lower while that of fixed internet penetration hit 13%, which is very low compared to the mobile internet penetration rate.
According to the guideline of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, by fiscal 2025-26, 80% of Iran's households should have access to fixed internet with an average speed of 25 Mbps, according to the news portal of Peivast.com.
According to this report, fixed home internet has 9.93 million subscribers in Iran and 18% of them get speeds of 2 Mbps or lower.
The report also stated that the total number of fixed internet subscribers (whether home or commercial users) has reached 11.05 million subscribers. In fact, the fixed internet penetration rate only increased by 0.19% during Feb. 19-March 20 compared with the previous fiscal month.
According to the report, Telecommunications Company of Iran is still the most important and popular fixed internet company in Iran and accounts for nearly half of the subscribers. Nevertheless, it does not provide Wi-Fi and TD-LTE services.
With regard to mobile internet, its penetration rate has reached 114%.
An important point in the new report of the Communications Regulatory Authority is the rise in the number of 3G subscribers of MCI and RighTel.
In total, the number of mobile broadband subscribers has increased by 4 million compared to the previous month to 95.8 million.
According to regulatory statistics, the number of RighTel subscribers reached 5 million by March 20, but its broadband subscribers are below 4.2 million. In other words, more than 994,000 RighTel subscribers do not use mobile internet. In fact, Iran's third biggest mobile phone operator does not offer 2G SIM cards.
Iranian Regulation in World Rankings
Telecommunications in most countries is initially owned by the public sector and monopolized by the government.
However, telecom resources and infrastructure are used for the further development of the country and a regulator (Communications Regulatory Authority in Iran) generally intervenes to make adjustments and use this monopoly in the national interest.
Reforms such as privatization, liberalization and regulation pursue the ultimate goal of shaping a fully competitive market.
One of the measures taken by ITU every year since 2008 is to examine the regulatory performance of countries based on several indicators and assign a rank to each country.
By 2020, when countries had not made much progress in terms of adopting 5G internet, ITU reviewed the regulators of different countries based on a special methodology that was specific to the first to fourth generations.
In the surveys of 2020, Iran obtained a score of 86 out of 100, which is a desirable score. But in the 2021 surveys, as the methodology had changed and the main focus was on the development of 5G internet and digital economy, Iran scored 48.46 out of 100.
