The launch of Iran’s National Information Network (NIN) has barely reduced Internet prices for end users, says the chairman of the board of directors at Shatel, Iran’s largest private internet service provider.
Almost half the content viewed by users is from local websites; therefore, the priority should be to study the effects of the NIN on service quality rather than price reduction, said Mohammad Hassan Shanesazzadeh, according to a company press release.
Development of high quality and practical content could be the winning point of the network. But despite this potential, “content development is accelerating at a snail’s pace in Iran,” he said.
Legal loopholes are the main obstacle preventing development of valuable content and there are no laws to protect the rights of content creators.
Globally, videos comprise 70% of the entire web content but in Iran videos have a very small share he said, adding that this matter will not improve until legal obstacles are removed.
The NIN was initially launched in August 2016 as an alternative independent network with content that is compatible with Islamic values. Iran’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology unveiled a second phase of the network on February 6.
Shanesazzadeh said that with the launch of the second phase “we should expect content of better quality; furthermore disruptions in Internet access should have lesser effects on services provided to users.”
Officials related to the project have previously said NIN will not disconnect Iran from World Wide Web, but act as a secondary domestic channel.
The third and seemingly final phase of the national scheme is to be launched before the end of President Hassan Rouhani’s term in August.
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