Mobile Internet connections are officially the most common portal used in Iran, according to a new report from the National Internet Development Management Center.
Iranians connected to the information superhighway now stand at 82.12% up from its previous high figure of 73% in the third quarter of the current Iranian year (started March 21).
The center says 61,709,929 people now have connection to at least one form of Internet be it through 3G or more traditional methods using copper cables like ADSL, with 71,149,000 people actually using the net.
According to the report, ADSL Internet penetration rate in the country reached 22.07%, with 16,582,053 now using the service of connected lines.
The report notes that a majority of Internet users are now connected through mobile Edge, 3G and 4G LTE connections .
Over the past year, 38.67% of the country now log on via the mobile handsets. This equates to 29,058,719 people using their cellphones for Internet connectivity.
For older types of Internet connections, 6,934,760 people use dial-up services that remain connected, accounting for a surprisingly 9.23% of the population. This is slightly down on the previous chart from the previous quarter.
For WiMAX—an over-the-air service using the GSM bandwidth—there are an estimated 1,211,359 people subscribing to the service, registering a slight decrease on the previous months’ figures; this percentage now stands at 4.03%.
When it comes to fiber optic Internet connections, the figure remains the same at 6,106,000 connections and accounting for 8.13% percent of the population.
The report adds that the broadband Internet penetration rate now stands at 48.37% of connections, up from 32.31% at the end of the last fiscal year.
The report adds that Tehran, Mazandaran and Qom have over 100% penetration, making them the most wired provinces.
Tehran, Mazandaran, Qom, Isfahan and Khuzestan have the highest penetration of broadband Internet throughout the country with 14,392,188 users in Tehran alone, which equate to 118.13% of the connections.
The report notes that North Khorasan Province has an Internet penetration of only 41%, which is the lowest in the country.
