Iran ISPs Ranked Based on Customer Review

EghtesadOnline: Iran’s Communication Regulatory Authority has released the results of its third nationwide survey on customer satisfaction with broadband Internet services.

News ID: ۷۴۶۱۵۱

27 October 2018

CRA deputy director Mehrdad Vaisi said in a note that during the six months to Sep. 22 thousands of Internet users from 31 provinces were asked about the general quality of services, speed, costs and after-sales services offered by the local ISPs, CRA.ir reported.

Such public surveys can and must help create a more transparent environment in the domestic Internet service providing sector and help boost competitiveness among the ISPs. The results of the survey are accessible on itmon.cra.ir.

This is the third such survey by CRA, according to Financial Tribune.

Based on the aforementioned criteria and users’ input, ISPs can receive up to 20 scores from CRA. According to user feedback, the top three landline Internet service providers in Iran are Shatel, AsiaTech, and Datak.

The rank of privately-owned ISP Shatel significantly improved reaching 17.5 from 15.9 in the previous round. Shatel is followed by AsiaTech with 15.6 and Datak 15.5. Customer satisfaction with AsiaTech and Datak has also improved notably.

Like in the previous rounds, state-owned Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) fared poorly in the survey and got 10.9 points out of 20 — the lowest score among landline ISPs and almost one point lower than TCI’s 11.5 score in the previous round.

The results of the survey can also be viewed based on provinces. In Tehran, Shatel again scored the highest with 17.09 points out of 20, followed by AsiaTech with 16.2 and Pishgaman with 16.

Discontent with TCI services is manifest in the firm’s score in Tehran, just like the nationwide results. TCI scored 11 out of  20 in Tehran and is the lowest ranked ISP in the province.

In addition to landline Internet, broadband wireless services (WiMAX) are offered by two companies in Iran, namely MTN-Irancell and Mobinnet. In CRA’s survey, Irancell and Mobinnet WiMAX subscribers were questioned about satisfaction with the services.

Irancell scored 14.2 while Mobinnet got 13.3. This is while in the previous survey, Irancell with 10.52 was trailing behind Mobinnet with 14.46.

In the survey, Internet users were selected randomly by CRA and were contacted by the ombudsman via email and phone. However, those who are keen to participate in future can contact the ombudsman through its website, register their phone number and say with which ISP they have a subscription. CRA will contact them to record their opinion about the ISP.

Landline ISP’s Score Out of 20

Company

3rd Survey

March to Sep. 2018

2nd Survey

Apr. to Nov. 2017

1st Survey

Jan. to March 2017

Shatel | 17.55 | 15.98 | 15.5
AsiaTech | 15.67 | 14.69 | 15.27
Datak | 15.53 | 11.92 | 13.2
HiWeb | 15.17 | 15.64 | 14.64
Pars Online | 14.64 | 14.08 | 15.64
Saba Net | 14.31 | 14.4 | 14.55
Pishgaman | 13.3 | 13.38 | 11.88
HelmaGostar | 12.94 | 14.57 | 13.92
TCI | 10.91 | 11.51 | 10

>Overview

There are more than 12.8 million subscribers of landline Internet services in Iran. An estimated 60 million Iranians use the services offered by mobile operators to surf the World Wide Web. According to CRA, the Internet penetration rate is  88.8%.

According to the latest Speedtest Global Index report published on speedtest.net, the average landline Internet speed in Iran is 12.84Mbps and the country is ranked 104 among 130 audited countries. The global average speed of landline Internet services is 49.26Mbps.

The quality of mobile Internet services is significantly better in Iran compared to landline services, with an average speed of  27.71Mbps — 4Mbps higher than the global average. Iran is ranked 51 in this regard.