Iran launches national fiber optic connectivity plan

Iran has launched an ambitious project to connect houses to a nationwide fiber optic network – what the administration of President Hassan Rouhani would provide citizens with an easy access to high-speed internet.

The project – which had been developed by Iran Telecommunications Company (ICT) – was launched by Iran’s Minister of Communication and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi.

Vaezi described it as a major progress that would revolutionize Iran’s national data network.

He said Rouhani’s administration had been pursuing the development of the national fiber optic network despite numerous obstacles that existed.

The official further emphasized that the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology had already taken major strides to promote internet-based businesses across Iran, adding that the national fiber optic connectivity project was a significant step in the same direction.

The project that officials had previously said would put the country in the “age of gigabit connectivity” has been created in nine cities including capital Tehran and would soon expand to other areas of the country, IRNA reported.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Vaezi said that Iran’s data transfer capacity had increased by 11 times since 2013 to reach as high as 10,000 gigabytes.

He added that Iran’s internet bandwidth capacity had also increased by 15 percent to reach as high as 10,000 gigabytes.

Vaezi said around 900 cities and towns across Iran currently are under the coverage of third generation of wireless mobile telecommunications – briefly referred to as 3G. He also added that the number of towns and cities under the 4G coverage currently stood at 742.  This, Vaezi emphasized, is while the coverage for both 3G and 4G services were extremely limited when Rouhani took office in 2013.