Iran’s Communications Regulatory Authority has released a report on mobile network operators in the first quarter of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 21).
The report examines the operations of three local operators, Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran (MCI, or Hamrah-e Avval in Persian), Irancell and RighTel, declaring that MCI's market share has grown at a rate slower than others’.
According to CRA, the total number of active mobile users increased by 8.8% in the three months under review to 131.82 million.
During the same period of the previous year, the total did not exceed 122 million.
MCI's subscribers increased by 7.9% year-on-year to 70.21 million from last year's 65 million.
Irancell's subscriber base increased by 9.6%, from 51.72 million in the first quarter of last year to 56.7 million this year.
RighTel, the third operator, saw the biggest YOY growth of 13.5%, as its subscribers increased from 4.3 million to 4.9 million.
According to the report, MCI’s status in the domestic market shows a downward trajectory during the three months under review.
The giant operator’s market share has seen a 0.44% decrease, falling from 53.71% to 53.26% YOY.
Irancell registered the most promising performance, as its market share increased by 0.3% to reach 43% in the first quarter.
RighTel followed Irancell with 0.1% growth to show a 3.7% market share by June 21.
According to CRA, the three operators' growth pattern can be seen in the past consecutive quarters.
MCI's market share has dropped by 0.3% from the last quarter of the previous Iranian year (Jan. 22-March 20).
Irancell and RighTel's market share increased by 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively, according to the quarterly figures.
Telecom Expansion
The regulator’s last comprehensive report on telecom infrastructure development pertained to the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2021), covering 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 reached 155% with over 131 million active SIM cards registered by March 2021, which was 142% a year earlier.
The three domestic mobile operators have established over 31,000 communication sites across the country by the end of last fiscal year.
The data also indicate that mobile network coverage on major and minor roads, as well as railroads, across the country reached 94.4%.
Mobile connectivity covering 82,000 kilometers of roads have been developed by MCI. About 64,000 kilometers of road have been covered by Irancell.
Landline Telephony
According to CRA, the penetration rate of landline telephone services reached 34.67% with 29.13 million active subscribers.
The rate has shrunk slightly compared with the previous year, which was 34.89%.
The report shows that the number of villages with landline telephones has reached 52,182, which is 83.8% of the total rural areas 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 landline internet is expanding at a snail’s pace, raising public discontent over the services.
According to CRA’s charts, the penetration rate of landline internet was only 12.61% by the end of the last fiscal year.
A total of 10.6 million subscribers are using different landline internet services, including xDSL with 8.57 million subscribers, FTTX with 159,000, WiFi with 382,000 and TD-LTE with 1.48 million subscribers.
Over 8.5 million of the total users around the country are household users and the rest are business outlets.
The report illustrates that the landline internet speed for around 2 million subscribers does not exceed 20Mb/s and 4 million have access to 2-10Mb/s speed.
Mobile internet, on the contrary, is expanding rapidly in the country, with a penetration rate of over 100%. The total number of 3G and 4G mobile internet subscribers has reached 84.1 million.
Plans Underway
Iran’s ICT Ministry plans to provide access to speedy connections to all villages with over 20 households.
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 will help build novel industries and businesses.
The development of internet connection has also helped curb educational disparity and offers 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, the number of schools with internet access has crossed 86,000 with the connection of 44,000 schools in less-developed rural areas to the national educational network in early October 2020.
“This prepares the ground for promoting virtual education. The completion of the plan was slated for March 2020, but impediments in supplying equipment delayed the work,” the minister 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.
