Iran’s Communications Regulatory Authority has released a report surveying the development of telecom infrastructure during the nine months to Dec. 20, 2020.
CRA’s report presents a detailed survey of both communication services (landline telephony and mobile network) and internet services (landline and mobile broadband data connection).
According to the report, the penetration rate of mobile network in the country has reached 151.9% with over 127.62 million active SIM cards registered by December 2020. The rate was 142% a year earlier. The data also show that mobile network coverage on major and minor roads, as well as railroads, across the country has reached 94.42%.
Mobile connectivity covering 82,000 kilometers of road has been developed by Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran (MCI, called Hamrah-e Avval in Persian). About 64,000 kilometers of road have been covered by MTN-Irancell, the second major operator in Iran.
These two operators, along with RighTel Company, offer mobile connectivity across the country. The three companies respectively have a 53.4%, 43.3% and 3.2% share of the market.
The CRA report shows MCI has so far sold over 100 million SIM cards, of which 68.17 million are active subscribers. Irancell has sold 91 million SIMs and has 55.29 million active subscribers.
The third and the less popular operator, RighTel, has sold around 9 million SIM cards, of which only 4.15 million are active.
The three mobile operators have established over 31,000 communication sites across the country by the end of last fiscal year’s third quarter (December 2020).
Landline telephony
According to CRA, the penetration rate of landline telephone services reaches 34.63% with 29.09 million active subscribers.
The rate has slightly shrunk compared with the same period of the previous year, which was 34.89%.
The number of rural subscribers of landline telephony has reached 4 million.
The report shows that the number of villages with landline telephony infrastructures has reached 52,176, which is 83.75% of the total rural spots in Iran.
The infrastructures have been developed mainly by state-owned operator Telecommunications Company of Iran and HiWEB.
Iran has 92,620 public telephones, most of which are not functioning for lack of services or the widespread use of cellphones.
Broadband Internet
The report shows that demand for landline internet services is expanding at a snail’s pace.
According to the CRA charts, the penetration rate of landline internet was only 11.57% by the end of the nine months.
A total of 9.71 million subscribers are using different technologies of landline internet services, including xDSL with 7.87 million subscribers, FTTX with 139,000, WiFi with 350,000 and TD-LTE with 1.35 million subscribers.
Over 8.4 million of the total users around the country are household users and 1 million are business outlets.
Mobile internet, on the contrary, is expanding rapidly in the country, with a penetration rate of 92.49%. The total number of 3G and 4G mobile internet subscribers has reached 77.7 million.
Iran’s top mobile operator has the largest share, with 38 million users. It is followed by Irancell with 35.9 million and RighTel with 3.8 million internet subscribers.
Plans Underway
Iran’s ICT Ministry plans to provide all villages with over 20 households with access to speedy connections.
These efforts are in line with the Universal Service Obligation Plan, proposed by the ICT Ministry, for providing broadband internet access to rural areas.
Officials believe that increasing the access of users, corporations and organizations to the internet can increase economic productivity and promote social welfare. Internet access increases traditional business activities and interactions via new strategies.
Rural craftsmen and farmers in Iran are now able to conduct their businesses through online platforms, directly interact with customers and exclude middlemen.
The promotion of ICT in rural areas also helps build novel industries and businesses.
The development of internet connection has also helped curb educational disparity and offer free education to all students through online platforms.
By utilizing the integrated ICT infrastructures, officials have connected all urban and rural schools with high-speed internet, giving school students of all grades access to online education.
According to ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, with the connection of 44,000 schools in less-developed rural areas to the educational network in early October 2020, the number of schools with internet access has crossed 86,000.
“This prepares the ground for promoting virtual education. The implementation of the plan was slated to finish by the end of the last Iranian year [March 2020], but impediments in supplying equipment delayed the work,” Jahromi told reporters.
“The ICT Ministry is also designing a project to provide high-speed internet access to all universities.”
Jahromi noted that around 1,000 universities will be connected to the internet via optic fibers.
