Vaezi Clarifies Telecoms Confusion, Plans

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi addressed the recent confusion caused by Iranian operators over the mobile number portability scheme.

In an interview on national television, Vaezi said only 14% of the registered MNP requests had been successful while Iran’s Communications Regulatory Authority reported the number to be 35%.

“In case allegations about deliberate negligence in providing services prove to be true, legal action will be taken against the culpable operators,” he said.

The scheme which was launched almost two months ago did not turn out as neatly as expected, since an unexpectedly high number of subscribers registered for switching their operator.

In addition to not being able to cater to the vast number of requests, the operators were also unwilling to lose their subscribers to their rivals, therefore they were not enthusiastic about fulfilling the requests.

Later, Iran’s major mobile operators reported contradictory statistics about the number of registered and successful requests, which gave the story a further dramatic twist.

In a recent interview, Vaezi announced new statistics that contradicted the numbers released earlier by CRA.

 Nat’l Information Network, Census

Another issue which the minister addressed during the interview was the tariffs for the National Information Network launched late August.

NIN (also known as Internet-e-Pak or “Clean Internet”) is planned to be an alternative, independent countrywide network, the content of which is compatible with Islamic values.

According to an earlier announcement, Internet subscribers are to be charged less for using the national network compared to the Internet.

During the interview, the official announced that Internet service providers have two months to implement the required mechanism to divide the transferred information based on the source and to inform their subscribers about the difference in prices.

He also reported that the ministry has established a data center in the city of Qom and is set to start two other data centers in Khuzestan Province and the city of Isfahan.

Another issue, which recently gained nationwide momentum, concerned the eighth round of National Population and Housing Census that was partly conducted online.

According to Vaezi, 20% of Iranian households used the census website to register.

This is while Omid Ali Parsa, the head of Statistical Center of Iran, said, “Given the 45% Internet penetration rate in Iran, 35% of households are expected to register for the census online.”