Telecommunication Infrastructure

Phone Lines

The International Telephone Union (ITU) figures for 1995 shows 7.57 main telephone lines per 100 inhabitants. ITU's projections for year 2000 puts this number at 17.03 per 100 inhabitants. In Egypt from 4.63 to 8.4, in Pakistan from 1.64 to 3.86, and in Saudi Arabia from 9.62 to 11.96.

Iran's network of main telephone lines in 1995 was over 5 million, more than the 2.7 million in Egypt, the 2.1 million in Pakistan, the 1.7 million in Saudi Arabia, but Behind Turkey's 13.2 million.

Waiting time for new phones in Iran is approximately two years (in the capital city of Tehran there is no waiting time), as compared to 5.7 years in Egypt and over 10 years in Saudi Arabia. In Pakistan the waiting time is only 0.7 years and in Turkey 0.6 years.

Domestic Telephone System:  as a result of heavy investing in the telephone system since 1994, the number of long-distance channels in the microwave radio relay trunk has grown substantially; many villages have been brought into the net; the number of main lines in the urban systems has approximately doubled; and thousands of mobile cellular subscribers are being served; moreover, the technical level of the system has been raised by the installation of thousands of digital switches

International Telephone System:  HF radio and microwave radio relay to Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Syria, Kuwait, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; submarine fiber-optic cable to UAE with access to Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG); Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) fiber-optic line runs from Azerbaijan through the northern portion of Iran to Turkmenistan with expansion to Georgia and Azerbaijan; satellite earth stations - 9 Intelsat and 4 Inmarsat;

Fiber Trunks and Submarine Cables

Fiber trunks are used widely in the city of Tehran and in limited areas between cities of Qom-Tehran and Ghazveen-Tehran. In addition, Submarine fiber optic cables are used in the Persian Gulf region with the Emirates of Sharjah and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

In Tehran, there are approximately 265,000 subscribers and additional number of applicants are on the waiting list. Outside Tehran, 14 cities are scheduled to have 70,000 lines.

Finland's Nokia installed a 10,000-line mobile center in Tehran. Italtel of Italy and Nokia of Finland have been chosen for some additional mobile projects, but final contracts have yet to be signed. Contracts are also on hold for digital telephone providers, Germany's Alcatel-SEL and Siemens, working through local partners are the main contenders.

Satellites and Earth Station

There are several satellite systems in operation today that collect images. Several of most common systems are Landsat, SPOT, and NOAA-AVHRR. Each type of satellite data offers specific charactersitics that make it more or less appropriate for particular application. Three Intelsat Satellite Earth Stations (2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean) , one Inmarsat-A land earth station (Indian Ocean Region) and mobile Satellite stations exist. Alcatel Espace of France has been named as the prime for Iran's Zohreh.

The largest Satellite telecommunication center in the Middle East located in the city of Bouem-e-Hen, 35 kilometers northeast of Tehran, serves 1,250 telephone channels and international telex lines. The satellite center enables a range of domestic communication and signal dispatches as well as extends access to direct telephone and telex links with sea bound vessels in Europe, Africa and Asia. 

Private networks are increasing due to increase usage of leased lines and satellites. Government agencies such as Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) and Office of Budget and Planning are among the primary users of Private WANs.

Telecommunication services are provided only by the Ministry of Post, Telecommunication and Telex (PTT) Government Office of Communication, Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI) . TCI generally succeed in building and operating countrywide infrastructures, meeting the demand for basic telephone services, and is starting to introduce more advanced services.

TCI hopes to add 400,000 lines to the fixed network through the newly-developed PCM 4 multiplex system, which allows capacity through each line to be quadrupled.

Leading local firms are :
Iran Telephone Manufacturing Company which has licensing agreements with Germany's Alcatel-SEL and Siemens;
Iran Communications Industries Incorporated;
Parstel, which has license from South Korea's Daewoo Corporation;
Paya, which has license from South Korea's Lucky Goldstar;
Iran Telephone Industries; and
Kyatel.

Currently all TV stations are controlled by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). These are statistical information about stations:

• Radio broadcast stations: AM 72, FM 6, shortwave 5 (1998 est.)
• Radios: 18 million (1999 est.)
• Major Television broadcast stations: 28 (plus 450 low-power repeaters)
• Televisions: 7 million (1999 est.)

    Developing of infrastructure and information technology undertaking requires initial human and financial capital investment. To this end, foreign direct investment and local business and investment promotion are of utmost importance.