Tehran, Iran, November 1
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
The first legal shipment of iPhone 7 is about to enter Iran, Mehr news agency reported November 1.
This is while iPhone 7 has already been shipped into the country illegally, despite the fact that the ICT Ministry has announced plan to withhold services to illegal phones.
Although at international markets iPhone 7 has been priced at $649 to $760, the iPhones now illegally in Iran are sold as high as $2,500 apiece.
On September 20, spokesman on Headquarters for Fight on Goods and Currency Smuggling Qassem Khorshidi said that each year Iran’s economy suffers a damage of $320 million from cellphone smuggling.
The government recently decided to withhold network service to cell phones that are not legally distributed in the country.
The current administration blames a previously established tariff of 60 percent on cell phone imports as the main encouraging factor behind the cellphone smuggling.
Iran’s mobile network's penetration rate is currently 97.5 percent. Over 21.35 million of Iran's 80 million population are using mobile phones to access the Internet, according to the latest statistics of the country’s ICT ministry published September 20.