Information Network, materialize a digital economy and expand the country’s communication infrastructure, the first phase of a major database has been launched in Bumehen, east of Tehran.
The inaugural event on Sunday was attended by Minister of Information and Communication Technologies Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the head of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Company, Hamid Fatahi, and the secretary of High Council of Cyberspace, Abolhassan Firouzabadi, along with several legislators and senior officials, IRNA reported.
Speaking at the event, Jahromi said the Telecommunications Infrastructure Company has invested 4 trillion rials [$16 million] in the project, which is aimed at empowering the National Information Network.
NIN was launched in August 2016 as an alternative independent network with content compatible with Islamic values. It is reportedly designed to facilitate Iranian users’ access to indigenous content.
Giving more details on the spending, Jahromi noted that 2 trillion rials ($8 million) have been invested for developing the NIN’s core, increasing the network’s capacity to 20,000 gigabits per second.
In addition, four Internet Exchange Points have been installed in the database.
“The remaining 2 trillion rials [$8 million] have been spent on developing the security of international terminal points and creating access networks,” he added.
Reportedly, the operational phase of the database boasts a terabit per second storage and a computing capacity needed to run the basic functional services, including email, messengers and search engines.
The operational phase of the database boasts a terabit per second storage and a computing capacity needed to run the basic functional services, including email, messengers and search engines
Noting that these basic services are vital for internet users, Jahromi said, “The infrastructure enables experts to develop local versions of today’s most used services and gradually replace them since an in-home database can increase the speed and quality, and shrink the cost of services.”
Currently, the database has specified 100 racks and 500 servers to would-be local messengers and search engines. The capacity can be easily boosted based on the required type of services and the development of hosting and cloud computing infrastructures.
A rack houses servers, networking devices, cables and other data center computing equipment.
Jahromi said six teams, comprising three local email service and three local messenger app developers, have so far been settled at the place to utilize the database’s capacity.
He emphasized that the would-be messengers should be able to offer micropayment and government services, plus acting as a small-scale media.
“The database has a great capacity for boosting employment in private businesses,” he said.
In line with efforts to boost NIN’s function, major mobile operator MTN-Irancell launched a datacenter with 407 racks in late May.
Executed with an investment of 11 trillion rials ($44 million), the data center added a 25% data storage capacity
Officials say the project is aimed at extending a helping hand to data security and independence, while contributing to extending NIN.
Statistical Report
In July, the ICT minister presented a statistical report on the development of NIN in different sectors.
“Digital services are one of the potential sectors for growth and for creating jobs,” he said.
Jahromi stressed that the digital economy accounted for 3.68% of Iran’s GDP in 2013-14 and its share increased to 4.11% in 2017-18 and jumped to 6.5% in 2019-20.
Underlining the remarkable expansion of NIN, Jahromi said the capacity of transport layers in the network was 680 gigabytes per second in 2013-14.
“Two years later, the capacity reached 4,000 gigabytes per second and it expanded to 18,000 gigabytes per second in 2019-20,” he said.
“The capacity of NIN data centers in terms of active racks has increased from 210 to 1,830 since 2013.”
The connection speed for mobile and cable internet subscribers was respectively 0.218 and 0.256 megabits per second in 2013-14.
The speed went up to 2.5 and 4.8 megabits per second respectively in 2017-18 and to 10 and 6.2 in 2019-20.
Shifting focus on internet access in rural areas, Jahromi said data coverage has increased from 0 to 89% since 2013.
In 2018, when the United States reimposed sanctions against Iran, the country faced economic challenges resulting in a total added value of 3.7% in the economy. The ICT sector registered a 31.3% growth rate in the same year.
Noting that all these achievements have been made because of young talents helping develop the technology ecosystem, the minister said, “Information technology is one of the important tools for raising productivity. All the figures indicate that the digital economy is a potential alternative for an oil-based economy.”
Jahromi concluded with a brief account of ICT sector’s lineup of projects planned for the current Iranian year (ending March 2021).
These included the launch of more data centers, an extension of data coverage for rural spots, a local operating system for mobile phones and the further development of communication infrastructures.
