All villages with at least 20 households and above will receive high-speed Internet, a deputy at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said.
"Specialists of the ministry are currently preparing plans for expanding the networks and establishing the infrastructures," Mehr News Agency quoted Morteza Barari as saying.
In a meeting with Chaharmahal-Bahktiari Province's Governor-General Qasem Soleimani Dashtaki on Sunday, the official noted that expansion of Internet coverage will help boost electronic business and create more jobs in the rural economies.
While noting that 8,000 villages received Internet coverage last year, Barari said the government of President Hassan Rouhani pays special attention to the development of electronic networks.
Historically, Internet penetration rates have been lower in rural areas than in other communities. When Iran began offering ADSL2 Internet and mobile Internet, rural connectivity was lower than 10% market in 2002.
However, after the advent of 3G/4G LTE Internet connectivity since 2014, rural mobile and home Internet users can now access superfast broadband.
According to a press release in November 2015, over 23 million Iranians had access to mobile Internet, with over 73% of the country now able to access the web.
Rural Internet penetration has remained roughly 20 percentage points behind the national average in each of the last four years.
