Iran Telecoms, Internet Report 2016-17

EghtesadOnline: The official portal of Measuring Information Society of Iran (MIS) affiliated to the Information Technology Organization announced that Internet penetration rate grew 7% during the last fiscal year that ended on March 20.

News ID: ۷۷۵۷۴۱

26 April 2017

The organization released the latest statistics on Internet penetration based on a recent survey it conducted in collaboration with the Statistical Center of Iran. According to MIS, there is at least one computer (laptop and/or desktop) in 61% of Iranian households — almost  14.8 million households.

By the end of the previous year that ended in March 2016, 57.4% of households in Iran had at least one computer. The number has grown 7% in one year, Financial Tribune reported.

Households: According to the data, 62.21% of households are connected to the Internet – 15.3 million households; which indicates a 12% growth compared to the past year’s 55.5%.

Individuals: The number of Iranians with access to the Internet during the one year period increased 17.5% with 53.2% of the population currently using the Internet. By the end of the previous year 45.3% of the population used the Internet.

The number of Iranian users of the web —aged over six — was put at 38.9 million.

As per the MIS view, a person is an “Internet user” who has used the net at least once during three months.

The national organization claims that the study is based on the standards outlined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).  ITU is an international organization basedin Geneva and is affiliated to the United Nations.

The ITU has 191 member states and more than 700 sector members and associates (private companies, non-governmental organizations and other entities).  Furthermore, the SCI affiliated to the Plan and Budget Organization, will conduct a survey studying Internet penetration and Iranian families’ access to ICT related technology in the current Iranian year.

The organization has conducted three similar surveys in the past 10 years.

Mobile Internet Users in Iran

According to a report released earlier by the Internet Management Center, affiliated to Iran’s Information Technology Organization, mobile Internet users in Iran have more than tripled in the past two years.

This is mainly due to the fact that the leading mobile operators — Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran (Hamrahe Avval or MCI) and Irancell—started promoting their 3G and 4G services.

Landlines and SIM Cards in Iran

According to an earlier report issued by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, there are 30.3 million landline phones in Iran, about 77.5 million SIMs are active.

Furthermore some 80 million sold SIM cards have been rendered unusable by the operators after being inactive for more than three months. This places Iran ahead of Italy and the UK at 14th place in terms of mobile phones in use at any given time.

The ministry also announced that 48,000 villages have landline phones.

The official website of Telecommunication Company of Iran put the landline phone penetration rate at 38.13%.

This is while landline phone penetration rate in Germany and France is 91.5% and 95% respectively. In the last decade, e-commerce emerged as one crucial issue in the Iranian ICT sector.

Since the late 1990s,e-commerce expanded globally and in the last few years, with the abrupt rise in Internet penetration rate in Iran, e-commerce has been growing rapidly. Although people in not small numbers are still uncomfortable with buying goods via the Internet, the sector registered a 60% growth last year, according to the ministry.

With more than 50,000 online shops active in Tehran, shopping online has become trendy in all major cities.  According of Deputy Minister of Industries Mining and Trade Ali Asghar Tofigh, during a one year period starting March 21, 2015 the value of the goods purchased via Internet reached $16.2 billion. Considering the $1,471 billion share of e-commerce globally, Iran obviously still has a long way to go.