Iran's newly-appointed minister of information and communications technologies declared that the National Information Network project will be completed in four years.
Isa Zarepour added that NIN is one of the country's most prominent ICT initiatives, serving as an infrastructure for electronic and smart service development as well as a powerful platform for the local internet, IRNA reported.
“After around two decades of foot-dragging, it is finally time to give the initiative one last push,” he added.
NIN was first proposed in 2005 by the ICT Ministry as an alternative and independent network with content compatible with Islamic values to facilitate Iranian users’ access to indigenous content. After a long-running saga, the project was launched in August 2016.
Zarepour stated that for removing the obstacles to NIN’s expansion, public education about the network's possibilities, the establishment of a rich content generation chain and the convergence of many sectors to use NIN in their activities would be extremely beneficial.
“Budget specification policies should be changed, project implementation efficiency should be improved, foreign and private investors should be attracted and the waste of money and time should be reduced,” he added.
According to the official, domestic ICT enterprises, mobile operators and tech teams should also play a bigger role in the development of NIN.
The integrated network, he added, will be able to double the present 5% share of IT in Iran's economy by providing millions of jobs upon its completion.
In December 2020, the ICT Ministry had announced that over 80% of NIN’s infrastructure were established.
Former deputy ICT minister, Hamid Fattahi, said the National Information Network’s infrastructure have been developed 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.
“NIN’s components include infrastructure, cyber policies, platforms, ecosystem and content. The development of each helps the completion of NIN project,” he added.
Stressing that the deficiencies and poor quality of internet and mobile connection in some rural areas will be curbed through the completion of NIN, Fattahi said, “The NIN components, with the rise in internet speed and rural linkup with internet, will ultimately live up to the standards envisaged in the original plan.”
He added that the ICT Ministry is tasked with developing the communications infrastructure and overseeing the technical aspects of the NIN project.
“Some blame deficiencies in content production or service development on the ICT Ministry, which have nothing to do with the ministry’s duties,” he said.
“If the local messenger apps or search engines have failed to offer strong and user-friendly services and attract users, it is unfair to blame it on the infrastructure. Numerous local online shops, e-learning and ride-hailing apps, along with other services, are successfully operating on the same platform.”
Fattahi 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.
Expansion Projects
In mid-September 2020, the first phase of a major database was launched in Bumehen, east of Tehran, with an investment of 4 trillion rials ($14.28 million) by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Company.
The project was aimed at empowering NIN, expanding the country’s communications infrastructure and shaping a digital economy.
Elaborating on the project, the former ICT minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, said 2 trillion rials ($7.14 million) have been invested for developing the NIN’s core, increasing the network’s capacity to 20,000 gigabits per second and installing four Internet Exchange Points in the database.
“The remaining 2 trillion rials [$7.14 million] have been spent on developing the security of international terminal points and creating access networks,” he added.
The operational phase of the database boasts a terabit per second storage and a computing capacity sufficient 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 popular services and gradually replace them, since a domestic database can increase the speed and quality, and reduce the cost of services.
The database specified 100 racks and 500 servers to would-be local messengers and search engines. The capacity can be easily boosted, depending on the type of services and the development of hosting and cloud computing infrastructure.
A rack houses servers, networking devices, cables and other data center computing equipment.
“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 2020.
Executed with an investment of 11 trillion rials ($39.2 million), the data center added a 25% data storage capacity
Officials say the project will extend a helping hand to data security and independence, while contributing to the development of NIN.
Statistical Report
In July 2020, Jahromi presented a statistical report on the development of NIN in different sectors.
“Digital services are one of the potential sectors for promoting growth and 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 expanded to 18,000 gigabytes per second in 2019-20. The capacity of NIN data centers in terms of active racks has increased from 210 to 1,830 since 2013,” he said.
The connection speed for mobile and cable internet subscribers increased from 2.5 and 4.8 megabits per second respectively in 2017-18 to 10 and 6.2 in 2019-20.
Referring to internet access in rural areas, Jahromi said data coverage has increased from 0 to 94% 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, while the ICT sector registered a 31.3% growth rate in the same year.
Noting that all these achievements have been made because of talented youths helping develop the technology ecosystem, the minister said, “Information technology is one of the important tools for raising productivity. Data indicate that the digital economy offers an alternative for an oil-based economy.”
Jahromi then presented a brief account of ICT projects planned in the remaining months of the Iranian year ending March 2021.
These included the launch of more data centers, extension of data coverage for rural areas, a local operating system for mobile phones and the further development of communications infrastructure.
