Iran's Third Mobile Operator Unveils Messaging App

Iran’s third largest mobile operator, RighTel unveiled an indigenous mobile messaging application on February 6. 

The application is named RighPhone and was unveiled during a ceremony on the occasion of the 10-Day Dawn festivities marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, ICTNA reported.

Abolhassan Firouzabadi, the head of Iran’s High Council of Cyberspace was present at the event.

 “Hopefully in a year, locally produced messaging apps will oust their foreign rivals,” he said.

He, however,  failed to mention that although already several “indigenous” messaging apps are available on Cafe Bazaar—Iran's most popular local Android app store—none have been able to win an acceptable share of the growing market.

RighTel CEO Majid Sadri provided details on the messaging app service. “Using RighPhone, subscribers can make voice and video calls,” he said. 

Both sides of the call are not required to use the application; even users who do not have the app installed can receive calls through the service, Sadri added.

In other words the caller will be connected via Internet resulting in reduced costs.  

RighTel unveiled three other services during the ceremony, namely, a video streaming service, an online customer service, and the company’s LTE-Advanced service. No details about the latter were announced.

In telecommunication, Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile phones and data terminals. It increases the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together with core network improvements.

Sadri also addressed the issue of RighTel’s deals with Mobile Virtual Network Operators and the company’s International roaming agreements.

“RighTel has been able to sign 237 roaming agreements with companies from 137 countries.”

He RighTel has also signed five agreements deals with Iranian MVNOs. According to Iran Telecom Minister Mahmoud Vaezi, RighTel is the only company which has successfully made deals with MVNOs.

Speaking at the same event Vaezi said: “Other operators’ reluctance to forge deals with MVNOs stems from their desire to protect their monopoly in the mobile telecommunication market.”