Iran ISPs Ranked by Quality

Iran’s Communication Regulatory Authority (CRA) has released results of a survey on users' opinion of Iranian Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

According to the report published by the Telecoms Ministry's news agency CITNA on Monday, 11 companies have been ranked in a new five-star rating system.

Regarding connection quality, per megabyte cost, Internet speed and customer satisfaction, none of the firms were able to win more than three stars out of five. However, of those companies the top ranked ISPs were all privately-owned.

The three-star ranked companies included well-known firms such as Pars Online, Shatel, HiWeb, Pishgaman, Asia Tech and Sabanet.

In the two-star group ISPs Helma Gostar and Laser were ranked for not offering quality service. However the report did not specify what complaints customers have with the two firms.

Unsurprisingly, the state-owned Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI or Mokhabarat) had to make do with one star. The company and its subsidiary in the capital, Telecommunications Company of Tehran, provides one of the poorest Internet services across the country, according to the report.

Meanwhile, two other ISPs also scored a lowly one-star rating including the privately-owned Datak and Fanava.

Hussein Fallah Joshghani, the chief telecom ombudsman said, "31,000 Internet users were surveyed.  In the next round we will try to get the views of 400,000 Internet users.”

Joshghani said the CRA has also launched a website for conducting future surveys allowing a greater pool of people to list their views, suggestions and complaints directly to them without having to rely on second-hand information from the ISPs.