Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 12
By Emil Ilgar – Trend:
Iran and South Africa’s MTN Company will sign a memorandum of understanding in the near future to develop Iran’s optical fibers in eight metropolitans, Iranian ICT Minister Mahmoud Vaezi said Aug.12.
He added that the talks are in final steps.
“MTN should put about $750 million investment in this project, of which $450 million will be direct investment,” Vaezi told IRNA.
MTN Group Ltd has 49 percent stake at IranCell Telecommunication Co. Services since 2007, based on agreement which led to suing it by Turkcell for illegal wining the tender.
Turkcell alleges that the MTN used bribery and wrongful influence to win the project, awarded firstly to Turkcell. MTN has rejected that. Turkish company opened a $4.2-billion lawsuit against MTN in 2016.
Fiber optic internet will be launched in the cities of Karaj, Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz, Mashhad, and Qom, providing 500,000 access ports with 10 gigabit per second internet.
MTN Irancell, has so far covered 161 cities with the latest generation of mobile broadband network (4.5G), the company’s official website reported in May 2017.