Minister: Iran quadruples Internet bandwidth

Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology told Trend that the Internet bandwidth in the country has quadrupled since mid-2013.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi said on August 20 that when Hassan Rouhani took the office (in mid-2013) the Internet bandwidth was 620 gigabytes per second (GB/s), but the figure is currently about 2,400 GB/s.

"Some 8,000 villages were connected to the national internet network in the past Iranian fiscal year, ended on March 20, he said, adding that the figure will be increased to 25,000 in the current year.

Currently there are 20 million Iranian Internet users.

Vaezi said that expanding and development of Internet services, information and communications technology (ICT), satellite and cosmic technologies are Iranian government's priorities. "There technologies can be used in agriculture, health, education, trade, industry and other spheres".

The Iranian minister said that during Rouhani's Administration the government approved access to a free information plan. He also said that above 90 percent of Iranian villages (48,000) enjoy telephone services.

Coming to international sphere, he said Iran has developed both software and hardware technologies and increased the exports of high technologies. Exporting software programs as well as applications increased, while the tablets and cell phones, produced by Iranian GLX has been exporting increasingly to the regional countries, especially Iraq.

Iran exported $200 million software programs during last fiscal year.

He also said that Iran producing and exporting fiber optical fiber is "In overall, a new wave of development in information technology sphere started in Iran".

Coming to the sanctions' affect on Iran, he said, "Blocking money transactions, lacking Iranians access to SWIFT as well as obstacles en rout of presenting and competing in foreign tenders were Iran's major problems, however after lifting sanctions we expected flowing the investments, increasing the cooperation with foreigners, offering projects for international companies and choosing the best among them.”

The major world powers (the US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) and the Islamic Republic of Iran reached a long-awaited comprehensive deal called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on July 14.

It's expected that the agreement will be implemented by the end of the current year after being ratified in Congress and Iran's parliament as well as when the international Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Iran is cooperating with this UN body based on mutual agreement between Iran and IAEA, achieved simultaneously with JCPOA.

/By Trend/