Rahmatollah Khazaei, CEO of Iranian Net operator, says the company is going to offer high speed Internet services to the residents of Aras free zone. Accordingly, the plan has been approved by local regulatory and Iranian Net will start the pilot phase of this project in coming months.
“We have planned three phases in this national project. In its pilot phase, we will offer high speed Internet services to the citizens of seven major cities of Iran. Then, we will expand our network to cover more cities and provinces until the next ten years.” Rahmatollah Khazaei said during the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s Web project.
Iranian Net operator receives financial and technical supports from Iranian government to compete this project. The project has been approved according to local development plans, and Iranian government must procure the necessary assistance base on Iran’s constitution. Khazaei also added that Iranians will be able to take advantage from 20MB Internet connections in future.
At this time, Iran has around 45 million Internet users. Islamic Republic is the leading country in the Middle East region in aspect of Internet penetration rate between residents. However, more than 54% of websites are officially blocked in country.
Aras Free Trade – Industrial Zone (AFZ) is situated in East Azarbaijan province, in the north-west of Iran, adjacent to Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Currently Iran buys Internet bandwidth from its neighboring states. Aras can be reached easily by those operators aim to provide high speed Internet connections.