In the press conference of Irancell’s 17th anniversary, it was mentioned; The turning point of the optical fiber project is the entry of Irancell

Irancell’s 17th anniversary press conference was held, and the CEO of Irancell, while explaining the functions and plans, considered the arrival of this operator as a turning point of the optical fiber project.

Yesterday, Irancell celebrated the 17th anniversary of the launch of its mobile phone network in a ceremony attended by Irancell managers and media members. Also, Dr. Bijan Abbasi Arend, CEO of Irancell, on the sidelines of the 17th anniversary press conference of this operator, opened the 650th site of the fifth generation of Irancells and said in his speech that the entry of Irancell is the turning point of the optical fiber project in Iran.

The press conference of the 17th anniversary of the launch of the Irancell mobile phone network was held in the morning of Saturday, October 29, 1402 in the central building of Irancell. In this ceremony, Dr. Bijan Abbasi Arend, CEO of Irancell, deputy directors, general managers and senior managers of this operator, as well as members of the media were present. The CEO of Irancell presented the latest achievements of this operator in various fields in several sections. In the first part of his speech, he announced the investment of about 10 billion dollars since the start of Irancell’s work and said that this operator currently has 64.4 million subscribers, of which 45.5 million are mobile internet subscribers. Also, this operator now has a 43.3% market share and has been able to increase the number of permanent subscribers to 7.8 million subscribers in the last year. Therefore, the number of Irancell permanent SIM card subscribers has increased by more than 25% compared to the same period last year.

In the continuation of his speech, Dr. Bijan Abbasi Arend presented the numbers and statistics of the network usage in the past year. Based on this, the record of daily data consumption in Irancell network happened in September 1402, which was equal to 22 petabytes. This record is considered a very large number in the scale of operators in the Middle East region. Also, according to real-time reports, the record of data consumption in Irancell network reached 23 petabytes two days ago, on October 28. In addition, the consumption rate of Irancell’s most trafficked site in the last year was about 6.5 terabytes in one day. 309 million minutes was a record for the daily consumption of calls on Irancell network on March 13, 1401, and the record of text messages sent on Irancell network happened on the first day of Farudin this year, when 381 million SMS messages were sent on Irancell network. .

Irancell’s plans to develop the optical fiber project

The CEO of Irancell further explained about the important development projects of this operator in the last year. According to Abbasi Arend, with the plans made this year, Irancell was able to obtain the Unified Network and Communication Services License (UNSP) from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. After obtaining this license, the development of fixed services is supposed to be on the agenda alongside the development of mobile services. One of Irancell’s strategic plans is to play a role in the optical fiber project, which makes Irancell no longer just a mobile operator, but also plays a role as a fixed operator. Abbasi Arend added that Irancell’s entry into fixed services is considered a big milestone both for the country’s information and communication technology industry and for Irancell itself. One of the goals for entering this industry is to help develop infrastructure, develop technology, help improve quality and speed, and create competition in order to provide more economical services to subscribers and businesses.

He also stated that based on the integrated license for network and communication services that was granted to Irancell in August this year, we committed to provide access to these services for 5 million households in 415 Make the city possible. Of course, the expansion of optical fiber in Irancell operator had already started and currently 2200 km of optical fiber infrastructure has been created in the metro layer and this company plans to create a million coverage throughout the country by the end of this year.

Bijan Abbasi Arend said about the progress of optical fiber projects in different cities of Iran, based on the plans made in the city of Babol, we need 120 km of optical fiber, of which 90 km have been created so far, and conditions have been provided for 25 thousand households to use this service. . He predicted that the entire city of Babol in Mazandaran province will be covered by optical fiber by Irancell by November of this year.

Last week, on the 22nd of October, Irancell also concluded a memorandum of understanding for the development of access to optical fiber for homes and businesses (FTTx) in Shiraz city with the cooperation of Shiraz municipality, and also a contract for issuing a drilling license for the optical fiber project for homes and businesses (FTTx) in Sadra city with The cooperation of Sadra Municipality has been signed with the presence of the Minister of Communications. More than 165 kilometers of drilling and ducting for the optical fiber project are to be done in Sadra city, of which 65 kilometers have been implemented so far, and 30 thousand residents of this city have been able to access this service with a speed of more than 900 Mbps.

In the continuation of this press conference, Irancell’s fiber optic speed test was conducted live in the presence of the media and the download speed was recorded at 947.62 megabits per second. The CEO of Irancell said in this regard that the high speed of optical fiber indicates the high capacity of the fiber, which can improve the quality of the subscribers’ experience. The development of optical fiber should have been accelerated a long time ago in order to reduce the pressure on the mobile network, and fortunately, now with the support of the government and the investments made, we are carrying out this project with strength. He expressed hope that the infrastructure will be developed in such a way that every household and business can have access to high-speed fiber optic internet in less than a month.

Irancell’s 650th 5G site was put into operation

In the continuation of the press conference of the 17th anniversary of the Irancell mobile phone network, the CEO of this operator presented the statistics of mobile internet coverage in the country as well as the number of fifth generation sites. He stated that now more than 91% of the country’s population coverage is covered by Irancell’s 2G and 3G network, and all cities and most of the villages with more than 20 households in the country, which make up 83% of the country’s population coverage, have access to the 4G network. They have Irancell’s LTE. We also have more than 780,000 subscribers of Irancell’s 4th generation TD-LTE fixed internet in 160 cities of the country.

Abbasi Arand introduced Irancell as the flagship of the introduction and development of the fifth generation of mobile phones in Iran and said that in the last two years and in continuation of the comprehensive development of the fifth generation in the country, we have activated a large number of 5G sites in most of the provinces of the country. Currently, 187 5G sites are active in Tehran province, and at the same time as the 17th anniversary of Irancell’s mobile phone network, the number of sites of this operator reached 650. According to the CEO of Irancell, until today 6.2 million subscribers whose mobile phones support the 5th generation network are active in the Irancell network and 550 thousand subscribers use Irancell’s 5th generation service. But due to the existing restrictions and the problems related to the locking of some mobile phone models due to sanctions, some Iranian users have not been able to use the 5th generation of the mobile phone network. These limitations have faced problems in the 5th generation development program and investment in this network. We are trying to solve these deficiencies and problems. Also, developing the country’s infrastructure in underserved areas and creating a connection to the national information network for the residents of these areas, along with the importance of developing new generations of mobile phones, are on Irancell’s agenda.

Abbasi Arend said regarding the measures taken in the field of rural development, one of our corporate and license obligations is the development of rural services. Based on this, we have launched 5845 sites in rural areas with more than 20 households, and 150 thousand billion Rials have been invested to remove deprivation from these underprivileged areas. By doing these measures, 30,860 villages and 13 million people of these areas are currently covered by Irancell high-speed internet. Irancell will fulfill all its obligations in the national rural development project by the end of this year.

The CEO of Irancell also mentioned the statistics related to data switch centers and said that in terms of the infrastructure of switch and data centers, we currently have 3200 racks in these centers that have been established in the country and 8 centers in different provinces. In addition, 240 racks are in the current development program and in the implementation stage, and the program to increase the capacity by 900 racks is on the agenda for the next two years.

The necessity of reforming the tariff and increasing investment

In the continuation of Irancell’s 17th anniversary press conference, financial information related to the activities of this operator was presented. In this regard, Bijan Abbasi Arend said that Irancell has paid a total of 787 thousand billion Rials of its income to the government since its inception until September of this year. Also, the operating income of Irancell in the first half of this year has grown by 26.6% compared to the same period last year, and the income from data and digital services has also grown by 21%. From the beginning of Irancell’s activity until September this year, about 10 billion dollars have been invested in total.

The CEO of Irancell compared the most expensive and the cheapest internet price per gigabyte in different countries and said that Iran has the cheapest internet tariff in the world at $0.07 per gigabyte. The amount of investment by operators in the past years and the average selling price of each gigabyte of Internet per year show that we need to revise tariffs more than ever to increase income and prevent the reduction of network quality. A significant part of the operators’ costs are for the provision of equipment and infrastructure, which are in dollars; But the income of rials along with the increase in the price of the dollar have made the ability of operators to invest and improve the quality of services to decrease day by day. The continuation of this trend makes users not satisfied with the Internet experience.

Irancell’s leadership in the ecosystem of digital life

The next part of this ceremony was the explanation of Irancell’s overall strategy, vision and mission. The CEO of this operator stated that managing the digital life ecosystem for customers and businesses is one of the most important goals of Irancell. In the last few years, Irancell’s strategy has been to move from a basic communication service company or Telco to a technology-oriented company or Techno so that various services can be provided to subscribers both in the infrastructure layer and in the service and platform layer and the digital ecosystem of the country can be empowered.

He went on to describe Irancell’s digital transformation plans, empowerment approach using artificial intelligence and cyber security issues to protect journalists’ data and added that Irancell’s digital transformation roadmap and maturity document have been drawn and we are implementing it.

Responding to half of the subscribers is done with digital channels

As a digital operator, Irancell has developed various services and launched digital services according to the needs of users, including Irancell My super application with 50 million installs and 20.3 million active users, Lens Internet TV as the only real IPTV in the country with more than Among the 8 million registered users and 5 million active users, he mentioned the services and applications of Rubika, comprehensive online education platform Dana, Modio, Yellowname, Yellowdevices, Yellowhub, Ravito, Pishvaz song service and Pocketjet wallet. Abbasi Arend introduced Jibjet as an important product of Irancell among digital services. This service currently has 15 million users and we plan to expand its services and activities with the help of the country’s banking network.

The CEO of Irancell also explained about the communication activities with customers and said that more than 50% of the support to subscribers is done through Irancell’s digital channels. The customer relations department has performed very well in the last one year and has handled more than ten million requests. Also, 51 percent of these requests are managed through digital channels, and based on surveys, customers have had 91 percent satisfaction with Irancell’s customer service.

The connected car service is being developed

Bijan Abbasi Arend explained the achievements of Irancell in the field of enterprise business and introduced the new products of this sector and other important products for the digitalization of businesses. According to the CEO of Irancell, the dedicated 5th generation network has been activated for organizations and industries so that the industry sector can move towards the digitization of their processes by focusing on artificial intelligence. In addition, in the connected car project, we have had important collaborations and contracts with automobile companies. Currently, the sales share of digital charging has reached 98.8%, and direct purchase of products by customers has reached 89%.

Presentation of the achievements related to Irancell’s intelligent human resources, research and development department and Irancell Labs group, measures taken to localize equipment, Vista Holding’s activity as Irancell’s investment arm in startups, the activity of Innovation Fund under this holding and Vistamedia’s activity with a new approach to content production And creating an intermediary link between content distributors and content production groups were among the next parts of this ceremony, which were explained by the CEO of Irancell.

Abbasi Arend added that Vistamedia is defined as one of the successful projects supported by Irancell in order to produce domestic content through IPTV lens and partnership with some domestic platforms. To date, this project has signed contracts with 28 domestic platforms and has increased domestic monthly traffic by more than 35%. The creation of several reality shows and a dedicated studio for content production and dubbing by this multimedia are among the actions that have been taken in line with Irancell’s development document in the field of content production.

He pointed out the importance of sustainability and social responsibility in the strategy layer as well as the current operations of the organization and described examples of these activities. According to Abbasi Arend, Irancell is trying to identify and comply with standards related to ESG or the institutionalization of environmental, social and corporate governance solutions. Irancell’s sustainability report has been continuously compiled in order to inform the performance in the implementation and compliance of these standards, and this year it has been published for the third year in a row and has been made available to interested parties.

The CEO of Irancell considered the fields of sustainable environment, sustainable society, sustainable economy and corporate governance as the pillars of Irancell’s approach to sustainability in business. Among these measures, we can supply energy to the sites with renewable resources, build and renovate schools in underserved areas and equip these schools with digital education facilities, campaign to inform about the protection of Iranian cheetahs and squirrels and oak forests in the Zagros region, select training courses in He pointed to low-income areas and equipping boarding schools with small solar power plants and allocating its income to schools.

At the end of this ceremony, Irancell’s one-year performance report was presented and the CEO of this operator explained the upcoming plans. Then, Dr. Bijan Abbasi Arend and Dr. Saeed Askari, General Manager of Irancell’s Public Relations and Organizational Communications, answered the journalists’ questions.

One of these questions regarding Irancell’s entry into the field of optical fiber service provision and the economic nature of this project was raised for the operator, and the CEO of Irancell stated in this regard that we prepare a complete and comprehensive business plan before starting any project and enter without this plan. We will not become any project. The optical fiber project is also considered an important infrastructure for providing new services such as 5G service, and on the other hand, its mass launch in the country using modern methods has reduced the price of the project, and we can provide the high-speed internet service based on optical fiber to the people of our country. .