Iran’s National Information Network (NIN) was officially launched on Sunday.
The first phase of the network, established by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, was launched after 11 years since the project was initially devised, Mehr News Agency reported.
Present at the ceremony was Es’hagh Jahangiri, First VP, Mahmoud Vaezi, Minister of Communication and Information Technology and Abolhasan Firouzabadi, head of Iran’s High Council of Cyberspace.
NIN–also known as Internet-e Paak or “Pure” Internet—will be an alternative independent countrywide network; the content of which is compatible with Islamic values.
According to the officials, NIN will facilitate Iranian users’ access to indigenously produced content, decrease cost and improve the quality of services.
The project will be developed further in two upcoming phases. The second phase is expected to be launched in February 2017.
In the latest session of the High Council of Cyberspace, President Hassan Rouhani said “If the National Information Network proves sustainable, reliable and secure it will be warmly welcomed nationwide.”
In the weeks preceding the launch, several private Internet service providers, namely Asiatech and Shatel, began promoting the national network within their urban billboard advertisements, apparently at the behest of government officials.
The National Information Network follows the launch of Iran’s first content delivery network service (CDN).
Last week the Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran (Hamrah-e-Aval or MCI), started providing content delivery network services.
In addition to protecting content providers from cyber attacks to a degree, the service will deliver content to end-users with high availability and high performance. It reduces bandwidth costs, improves page load times and global availability of content.
After Rouhani took office in August 2013, his administration pledged major reforms to the ICT sector both in terms of the quality and the prices of services.
The administration has allocated over 170 trillion rials ($52 million) for a five-year period for developing local search engines.
Also the Ministry of ICT has pledged to establish the required infrastructure so that all villages with over 15 households will have access to Internet before the next presidential election in May 2017.
