Over 90% of rural areas in the western province of Hamedan will be linked to high-speed mobile internet by early May, according to Information and Communications Technologies Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi.
During a visit to survey ICT projects underway in the province on Saturday, Jahromi said cable internet connectivity is available in the district and mobile internet coverage will be extended to almost all villages in the coming months, the ICT Ministry’s website reported.
Of the total 1.75 million people living in the province, more than 98,000 live in 1,067 villages, according to Hamedan’s Governorate.
“Hamedan is a tourist destination, but local ADSL links are unavailable to visitors. As a result, it is critical to continue to improve mobile communications,” he added.
The minister added that 108 mobile network stations will be established in the province to improve mobile subscribers' network and internet connectivity.
“The project was supposed to be completed a long time ago, but its implementation was slowed by US sanctions. So far, 55 sites have been developed and the remaining stations will be built as soon as possible, now that all the necessary equipment have been supplied,” he said.
In a meeting with provincial authorities, Jahromi declared that 96% of Iranian villages with more than 20 households have internet access.
“We are ahead of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan [2017-22] by 16%,” he added.
The minister noted that promotion of communications technologies makes life easier for the general public, particularly during the pandemic.
“With over 13 million students, 1 million teachers, 4 million university students and 140,000 professors using online educational facilities around the country, ICT growth plays a critical role in people's daily lives,” he said.
“Internet and social media have become an inseparable part of life and economy, such that nearly all small and large enterprises use different online platforms to expand their businesses.”
Underlining the fact that communication justice is part of social justice, Jahromi said maximum effort has been made for expanding the country’s ICT infrastructures.
Recent Developments
In line with the communication access policies, the Iranian government has invested 2.07 trillion rials ($8.36 million) for the expansion of ICT infrastructure in the western province of Qazvin, making it an archetypal project of its kind.
The ICT minister announced that development projects have been launched to provide ICT services in Qazvin’s villages in six months.
“A total of 180 communication centers will be established in the province with an investment of 1.8 trillion rials [$7.27 million] to provide mobile network and internet coverage in underdeveloped areas,” he added.
Jahromi noted that an additional 270 billion rials ($1 million) have been earmarked for expansion of fiber optic network by 180 kilometers in the province.
“A similar project is underway in Qazvin to install 120 kilometers of fiber optic cables, over 80% of which have been implemented. With another 180 kilometers, cable-based communication capacity will increase significantly,” he said.
“The projects will be carried out in two complementary phases spread over six months. The first part is scheduled to deliver results by late April.”
The ICT minister said the state-affiliated Telecommunications Company of Iran is committed to streamlining landline telephony in the province and fixing the network bugs in 67 areas over four months.
He also promised that all villages in Zanjan Province will be connected to the internet by August.
“In a matter of weeks, all 712 villages will be connected to the internet. A total of 102,000 households are living in these villages,” he said.
The minister has newly inaugurated 155 communication sites in rural areas to provide 15,000 residents and 250 schools with internet access. The sites were established with an investment of 1.34 billion rials ($5,414). The new connections increased the number of rural areas with internet access to 611.
Jahromi also inaugurated an ICT development center in the province at a cost of 320 billion rials ($1.29 million).
ICT officials say more good news is in the offing about the development of rural communication and internet access by the end of the current fiscal year (March 20).
Projects are underway in South Khorasan and Markazi provinces.
NIN’s Role
Officials attribute these developments to the launch of the National Information Network in August 2016 as an alternative and independent network with content compatible with Islamic values to facilitate Iranian users’ access to indigenous content.
In December 2020, the ICT Ministry announced that it has established over 80% of the integrated network’s infrastructure through the expansion of fiber optic connections, establishment of communication stations and towers, and a surge in the number of data processing racks and data centers.
Deputy ICT Minister Hamid Fattahi said the completion of NIN will help remove the deficiencies and poor quality of internet and mobile connections in rural areas.
He noted that the ICT Ministry has put maximum effort into boosting NIN’s performance by expanding the network’s data centers and data processing capacity.
In mid-September, the first phase of a major database was launched in Bumehen, east of Tehran, with an investment of 4 trillion rials ($16.16 million) by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Company.
The project is aimed at bolstering NIN, expanding the country’s communications infrastructure and materializing a digital economy.
