From laying the groundwork for launching satellites into orbit to transforming Iranian metropolises into smart cities, establishing science and technology parks and nurturing the startup environment, Iran has plans for the coming fiscal year that starts on March 21.
Iran’s ICT Ministry plans to establishing a technology center in Payam Special Economic Zone to the south of Karaj, Alborz Province. Named ICT Corridor and praised as “the most important economic project” by the minister, the center is to host startups and firms active in the fields of information and communication technology.
Earlier on March 4, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi outlined the municipality’s plans for transforming the metropolis into a smart city in the Smart Tehran Congress held at the iconic Milad Tower north of Tehran.
The efforts are not limited to Tehran and Karaj. ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi said an ICT tech park is being established in Mashhad and will be inaugurated in May to promote the startup environment in the northeastern shrine city.
The establishment of technology parks has topped President Hassan Rouhani’s agenda since he took office in 2013 and several science and technology parks have been set up in different provinces.
Azari-Jahromi noted that the startup environment must be nurtured in Iran and authorities should pave the way for the growth of such firms, adding that the ministry has prioritized the establishment of startup accelerators in all provinces.
“There are over 3,000 active startups in Iran. Over the next four years, the ICT Ministry is set to further boost startup growth in Iran. Some 20,000 startups and 10,000 knowledge-based firms are expected to be established with the ministry’s assistance,” he said.
The ministry will offer 5 trillion rials ($105 million) in the form of loans with low-interest rates, in addition to other incentives to startups and knowledge-based firms.
Iran’s Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari said Iran’s startup ecosystem must be fostered to motivate private entities to invest in the sector and create thousands of much-needed jobs for the younger, educated generations.
“During the past fiscal [which ended in March 2017], Iranian knowledge-based firms had a collective sale of 2 trillion rials ($42 million). There are over 3,000 knowledge-based firms in Iran and thousands of startups are operating in the country,” he said.
According to official statistics, Iran has 3,371 registered knowledge-based firms.
Sattari noted that there are over three dozen venture capital funds and startup accelerators in Iran.
According to the latest reports, Iran has 39 startup accelerators, with 21 of them based in Tehran and 18 in other cities.
Indispensable Infrastructure
Startups and knowledge-based firms do not operate in the void and they rely to a great extent on the country’s ICT infrastructure. In recent years the telecoms infrastructure has observed a significant boom.
According to the ICT Ministry, there were over 30 million active landline phone subscribers by Sept. 22, 2017.
Landline telephone services’ penetration rate stands at 38.69% in the country. The number observed a 0.15% increase during the six months to Sept. 22.
In the country of 80 million people, 156 million SIM cards have been sold, of which 85 million are active, which means that mobile phone penetration rate stands at 106.43%. By the end of the last fiscal that ended in March 2017, the number stood at 104.14%.
According to the ministry, there are 47.3 million mobile Internet subscribers in Iran while landline Internet subscriptions have reached 10.5 million.
Currently, the country’s international bandwidth is 1,114 gigabits per second, which was 743 Gbps by the end of the last fiscal (ended March 20, 2017). International bandwidth is the maximum quantity of data transmission from a country to the rest of the world.
When President Hassan Rouhani took office in 2013, Iran’s international bandwidth was 122.6 Gbps, marking a growth of 900% over the last five years.
According to the ICT Ministry, the national bandwidth has grown eight times since President Rouhani claimed the mantle of the government, which reached 6,800 Gbps from 850 Gbps in 2013. National bandwidth is the maximum quantity of data that can be circulated through Iran’s National Information Network.
Average mobile and landline Internet speed stand at 20.66 Mbps and 10.20 Mbps respectively in Iran.
Iran’s mobile phone market has also grown rapidly in recent years. Latest estimates show 7.2 million phones are sold in Iran annually at an average price of 14 million rials ($304).
Astronaut Aboard
While Iran has made solid progress on the ground in the ICT sector, it has made an ambitious foray into the fields of space science. Several satellites have been put into orbit by the country and the head of Iran’s Aerospace Research Institute said the county is mulling the possibility of sending an astronaut into space.
Fat’hollah Ommi added that the space agency is considering the possibility of sending an astronaut aboard its spacecraft.
The program will be carried out in two phases. The first involves a sub-orbital spaceflight and the second (to become operational by 2025) will be an orbit launch.
Iranian Space Research Center, affiliated with the ICT Ministry, is also constructing two satellites. According to the center, the construction of a remote sensing and communications satellite will be completed next year.
Hassan Haddadpour, the head of ISRC, said the country’s first remote sensing satellite dubbed Soha (meaning Star in Persian) and the communications satellite Nahid-2 (Nahid is Venus in Persian) are to be completed in the next fiscal that starts on March 21.
Soha would be able to detect objects with an image resolution of 15 million pixels and will be placed in an orbit of 36,000 km. It weighs about 150 kilograms.
Iran sent a monkey into space in 2013 with the flight returning to Earth with the monkey alive.
