MTN-Irancell, Iran's second largest mobile operator by number of subscribers, announced it has reduced the price of its 4G SIM cards from IRR 200,000 to 100,000 with IRR 20,000 initial airtime, the company said in a PR release on its website on Monday.
According to the report, the number of SIMs which will be released at the new price will be limited.
In November 2014, the Rouhani administration relaxed telecommunications licenses allowing all networks to offer 3 and 4G mobile internet technologies.
Currently MTN-Irancell is ahead of the competition by offering 4G mobile internet in 56 cities across the country, and by offering internet connectivity through Wi-MAX internet services.
Since the relaxation of rules on the national mobile spectrum, all three mobile networks including Rightel and MCI (Hamra-e-Aval) have attempted to drive growth in mobile internet technologies by offering incentives.
The news of the recent incentives comes as the telecoms ministry recently suggested that by the end of the current Iranian year (started March 21) Mobile Number Portability, or Number-Porting will become an option in the country.
This would enable mobile consumers to transfer their cell number to a competitors network and likely change the current dynamic between the main networks.
MTN-Irancell is a partly owned by the South African mobile service provider MTN Group who holds a 49 percent share in the local subsidiary.
