Total annual revenue of Iran telecom industries stood at $7.8 billion by the end of 2016, indicating a 6% year-on-year growth, the International Telecommunication Union reported this week.
The United Nations specialized agency for ICT in its latest report ‘Measuring the Information Society Report 2018 Volume 1’ adds that with $5.6 billion or a 72.4% share of the industry’s total turnover, mobile operators are leading the way in Iran.
According to the ITU, Iranian mobile operators' total sales increased by 5.02% in 2016, compared to a year earlier. This is while their monthly average revenue per user (USD / subscription / month) stood at $5.9 by the end of 2016, down 3.27% compared to the previous year.
The numbers indicate that while the mobile operators’ monthly average revenue per user has declined, the industry’s total turnover has shot up since the number of users is on an upward trajectory.
Capital expenditure (CapEx) in Iran telecom industry has also boomed. The ITU said in 2016, $1.84 billion were spent by local firms and the Iranian government on acquiring, upgrading, and maintaining fixed assets, such as land, buildings, and equipment, indicating a 22.3% YoY increase.
The share of CapEx of telecommunication revenue reached 23.6% by the end of 2016, from 20.5% in 2015, and 12.8% a year earlier.
Mobile-Cellular Basket
In 2017, Asia and the Pacific were home to the lowest prices for the mobile-cellular basket. Apart from Sri Lanka, which has consistently offered the lowest prices for the mobile-cellular basket worldwide (PPP$2.8) in the last eight years, Iran stood out for outstanding low prices (PPP$4.3 per month).
The Mobile Telecommunication Company of Iran (MCI), a subsidiary of the former incumbent telecommunication operator (Telecommunication Company of Iran or TCI), now partly privatized, competes in the mobile market with Irancell, partly owned by the transnational operator MTN, as well as with some smaller or regional operators.
Capital expenditure (CapEx) in Iran’s telecom industry has also boomed. ITU reports that in 2016, for expansion and maintenance of the telecom industry $1.84 billion was spent by local firms and the government on acquiring, upgrading, and maintaining fixed assets, such as land, buildings, and equipment
ITU reports that the de facto duopoly in the Iranian mobile market, coupled with the ICT policy framework, has ensured sustained low mobile-cellular prices in the last four years, at PPP$ 5.5 per month or below.
Based on mobile-cellular basket’s share of the gross national income per capita (GNI p.c.) in Iran, the country is ranked as the 15th country with the most affordable price for the mobile-cellular basket.
Mobile-Broadband Basket
An analysis of handset-based mobile-broadband prices in GNI p.c. terms shows that the most affordable prices are in Macao (China), which is also the economy with the most affordable mobile-cellular prices.
Given the convergence of prices in PPP$ terms, the disparity that persists in prices as a percentage of GNI p.c., particularly between least developed countries (LDCs) and the rest, may reflect as much differences in income as specific conditions in the ICT sector.
Asia and the Pacific is home to some of the most affordable mobile-broadband services worldwide, having as many as 15 countries with handset-based prices that correspond to less than 2% of GNI p.c.
The regional mobile-broadband affordability ranking was topped by high-income economies such as Macao (China), Singapore and Hong Kong (China), as well as countries with much lower incomes but extremely low handset-based mobile-broadband prices, such as Iran, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Myanmar, all of them offering prices below PPP$ 6 per month.
In this regard, in 2017, Iran was ranked as the 30th country with the most affordable prices in GNI p.c. terms (0.47%).
The price of a monthly mobile-broadband basket with a 600 MB monthly data allowance for prepaid SIMs was PPP$ 5.86 in Iran in 2017.
Computer-Based Services
Iran is ranked the 32nd country in terms of the most affordable price in GNI p.c. terms (0.67%) for postpaid computer-based mobile-broadband basket.
The price of a monthly computer-based mobile-broadband basket with a 2 GB monthly data allowance was PPP$ 8.37 in Iran in 2017.
The country is ranked 27th in terms of the most affordable price in GNI p.c. terms (1.02%) for fixed broadband services.
A monthly fixed-broadband basket with a speed of 1.0 Mbit/s and a monthly cap of 4.0 GB cost PPP$ 12.77 in Iran in 2017.
The top 25 countries with the most affordable fixed-broadband services have prices that correspond to less than 1% of their GNI p.c. The country with the most affordable entry-level fixed-broadband services is Uruguay
Asia and the Pacific are home to some of the most affordable entry-level fixed-broadband services worldwide. All high-income economies in the region have prices that correspond to less than 2% of GNI p.c., with Macao (China) at the forefront of the regional and global ranking.
In addition, countries with much lower income levels – such as Bangladesh, Iran, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam – have achieved rather affordable fixed-broadband services thanks to entry-level offers below $5 per month. This is probably the current lowest price level possible for entry-level fixed-broadband plans in the absence of direct government intervention.
Note: Prices in this report are expressed in three complementary units:
In United States dollars (USD), using the International Monetary Fund annual rates of exchange.
In international dollars (PPP$), using purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factors instead of market exchange rates. The use of PPP exchange factors helps to screen out price and exchange-rate distortions, thus providing a measure of the cost of a given service taking into account the purchasing power equivalences between countries.
As a percentage of countries’ monthly gross national income per capita (GNI p.c. - Atlas method). Prices are expressed as a percentage of GNI p.c. in order to show them relative to the size of the economy of each country, thus pointing to the affordability of each ICT service at country level.
