Iranians have been following the global trend in shunning old-school telephony and opting for Voice over Internet Protocol services.
Figures on the total international telephone calls conducted during Norouz (Iranian New Year holiday season from March 21 to April 2) in recent years suggest a downward trend in use of traditional means of communication and highlight the fact that the gloss has been taken off phone business.
Data since 2015 testifies to a declining trend in the past four years. Since 2015, the total duration of calls during Norouz has more than halved from 90 million minutes in 2015, to 43 million minutes in 2018, ISNA reported.
Killing Them Softly
According to data reported by the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company of Iran, 43.5 million minutes of international incoming and outgoing phone calls were made during Norouz of 2018, indicating a 20% year-on-year fall.
Chief of TIC’s Network Management Control, Sohrab Aqabayat says most calls were dialed on the first day of the new Iranian year (March 21).
“Over 4.5 million minutes of conversation [10.4% of all calls conducted during Norouz] took place on March 21, the first day of Norouz.”
The calls were mostly made between locals and users living in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, the United States, Azerbaijan, Canada and Germany.
Outgoing calls make up for 66.7% (28.9 million minutes) of the traffic and the remaining 33.3% were incoming (14.5 million minutes).
During the Norouz of 2015, 90 million minutes of international phone calls were made, with 13.3% of the calls dialed on the first day of the holidays.
Observing a 7% year-on-year decline, during the Norouz of 2016, 83.8 million minutes of conversation were exchanged among Iranians and friends and relatives abroad. Some 11 % of the calls took place on the first day of Norouz.
In 2017 and during the holiday season, 54.3 million minutes of calls were exchanged, 10.4% of which were made on the first day of Norouz. The total plummeted 35% compared to the same period of the last year.
Changing Times
While in previous years, application of the Internet to daily life was the exclusive domain of the younger generation, in recent years senior citizens have learned to sort out using various apps on their smartphones, hence the downward trend of telephone traffic.
Apps such as Skype, WhatsApp and Imo have been in the ascendant among Iranians, especially with the added option of video calling that can bring friends and relatives closer than ever before.
A simple search in Android app store for Iranians Café Bazaar shows that Skype has been downloaded over 9 million times.
Internet and online services can be called the disruptive technologies of our time. They have transformed almost all aspects of daily life and there is not a single field of industry and business which has not been affected by the growing application of the technologies with telephone business bearing to some extent the brunt of the changes.
Just like all historical examples of the appearance of disruptive technologies, businesses react in two varying ways: resisting and suppressing the change or going along with the tide.
Iranian mobile and landline operators, observing their dwindling revenues from telephone business initially tried to lobby with authorities to limit users’ access to Voice over IP services. However, facing citizens growing interest in the technology, they have relented and even introduced VoIP applications themselves.
Iran’s largest mobile operators Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran and MTN-Irancell unveiled Internet-based telephony services last October and the state-owned Telecommunication Company of Iran is expected to follow suit.
