Iran’s Information and Communications Technologies Ministry is investing in the expansion of ICT infrastructure to enhance the quality of life in rural areas.
The latest projects have been executed in Fars Province to expand internet and mobile network coverage to 97% of villages from 15% in 2017, the ministry’s website Ict.gov.ir reported.
During a Monday event, ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, together with Fars Governor General Enayatollah Rahimi and a team of provincial officials, symbolically inaugurated the new connections to three villages.
The ICT infrastructure has been developed by Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran that established 228 communication stations in 336 villages to provide mobile telephony and internet services.
MTC has also considerably expanded road communication coverage in and around the province.
Statistical data show around 4.8 million people live in Fars, of which 1.4 million reside in villages.
“The implementation of ICT projects was slowed by US sanctions. However, project managers have done a great job and overcome the restrictions,” he added.
Jahromi declared that 96% of Iranian villages with more than 20 households have internet access.
“We are ahead of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan [2017-22] by 16%,” he added.
The minister noted that promotion of communications technologies makes life more convenient for the general public, particularly during the pandemic.
“With over 13 million students, 1 million teachers, 4 million university students and 140,000 professors using online educational facilities around the country, ICT growth plays a critical role in people's lives,” he said.
“Internet and social media have become an inseparable part of life and economy, such that nearly all small and large enterprises are using different online platforms to expand their businesses.”
Stressing that communication justice is part of social justice, Jahromi said maximum effort has been made for expanding the country’s ICT infrastructures.
NIN’s Role
Officials attribute these developments to the establishment of the National Information Network launched in August 2016 as an alternative and independent network with content compatible with Islamic values to facilitate the Iranian users’ access to indigenous content.
In December 2020, the ICT Ministry announced that it has established over 80% of the integrated network’s infrastructure 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.
Deputy ICT Minister Hamid Fattahi said the completion of NIN will remove the deficiencies and improve the quality of internet and mobile connection in rural areas.
He noted that ICT Ministry has put maximum effort into boosting NIN’s performance by expanding the network’s data centers and data processing capacity.
In mid-September, the first phase of a major database was launched in Bumehen, east of Tehran, with an investment of 4 trillion rials ($16.19 million) by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Company.
The project is aimed at empowering NIN, expanding the country’s communications infrastructure and materializing a digital economy.
The database boasts a terabit per second storage and a computing capacity sufficient to run basic functional services, including email, messengers and search engines.
Noting that these basic services are vital for internet users, Fattahi said the infrastructure enables experts to develop local versions of today’s most popular services and gradually replace them, since a domestic database can reduce the cost and increase the speed and quality 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 targeted 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 massive 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 ($44.53 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 in tandem with the digital economy.
