Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 17
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
In total some 35 percent of the domestic data consumption is hosted by Iranian companies, deputy head of Iran's Telecommunication Infrastructure Company, Hassan Karimi said, the country's ISNA news agency reported.
Karimi went on to say that the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company has transferred hosting of the some 25 percent of the domestic used data into the country.
Some 10 percent of the used data already is hosted by the domestic companies, he added.
The Telecommunication Infrastructure Company offers incentives including free internet service for the companies which transfer their data to domestic hosting companies, Karimi said.
Transferring hosting to the domestic companies leads to decrease in internet costs, the official underlined.
"The costs of the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company will be decreased, while demand for internet data import decreases," he added.
The Iran's Telecommunication Infrastructure Company is the sole provider of telecommunication infrastructure to all private and public operators in the Islamic Republic. The company is also the sole responsible party for all international gateways and IP capacity and connectivity services in the country.
Since 2005 Iran has been reportedly developing its National Information Network or National Intranet to improve control over its content as well as speed. The project, which is separate from the World Wide Web is scheduled to be completed by the end of the fifth five-year development plan (2011-15). This network will be separated from the rest of the internet and is specifically for domestic use.
According to the Internet Penetration Management Portal which is part of Iran's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, the number of Internet users by the end of the last Iranian calendar year (ended on March 21, 2013) reached 45.884 million.
The figure indicates the Internet penetration rate of the country stood at 61.06 percent by the end of the last Iranian calendar year.
About 22.629 million of internet users in Iran have used GPRS service to access the Internet over the same period.
Edited by C.N.