Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies has established over 80% of the infrastructure of the National Information Network, a deputy ICT minister says.
During a Wednesday meeting on the ministry’s performance, Deputy ICT Minister Hamid Fattahi said, “NIN’s components include infrastructure, cyber policies, platforms, ecosystem and content. The development of each helps the completion of NIN project,” IRNA reported.
NIN was launched in August 2016 as an alternative and independent network with content compatible with Islamic values to facilitate Iranian users’ access to indigenous content.
“National Information Network’s infrastructure has been developed by up to 80%, through the expansion of fiber optic connections, establishment of communication stations and towers, and a surge in the number of data processing racks and datacenters,” Fattahi 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, the deputy minister said, “The NIN components, with the increase in internet speed and connection of rural areas with internet, will ultimately live up to the standards envisaged in the original plan.”
Fattahi added that the ICT Ministry is tasked with developing the communications infrastructure and responsible for the technical aspects of the NIN project.
“Some blame deficiencies in content production or service development on the ICT Ministry. Those issues 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 service platforms, are successfully operating on the same infrastructure.”
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, the first phase of a major database was launched in Bumehen, east of Tehran, with an investment of 4 trillion rials ($15.23 million) by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Company.
The project aimed to empower NIN, expand the country’s communications infrastructure and materialize a digital economy.
Elaborating on the project, ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said 2 trillion rials ($7.61 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 [$7.61 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.
Executed with an investment of 11 trillion rials ($41.9 million), the data center added a 25% data storage capacity
Officials say the project is aimed at extending a helping hand to data security and independence, while contributing to the development of NIN.
Statistical Report
In July, the ICT minister presented a statistical report on the development of NIN in different sectors.
“Digital services are one of the potential sectors for growth and for 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 was respectively 0.218 and 0.256 megabits per second in 2013-14.
The speed went up to 2.5 and 4.8 megabits per second respectively in 2017-18 and 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 young talents 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 is a potential alternative for an oil-based economy.”
Jahromi then presented a brief account of ICT projects planned in the remaining months of the current Iranian year (ending March 2021).
These include 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.
