PREFACE

Nowadays, the widespread ICT actions taken in the global domains, and the importance of IT as the most rapid growing scientific and technological sector of the society has urged the governments to boost the investment in this sector , so as to pave the way for a reliable and prosperous platform toward the development activities of the country.
Recently, our country's management trend has adopted this efficient approach, and its practical groundwork has been laid. According to this fact , and following the approval of renaming The Ministry of PTT to The Ministry of ICT , programs and plans for ICT development and restructuring have been set in a new method and more seriously.
Establishing two infra-organizational councils, IT Supreme Council and Space Council , two mother companies for Telecommunications and Post , two ICT related Organizations. Organization for Space and organization for Communications Regulations, and Launching three new subsidiaries as Mobile company, Data Company and Backbone Company with special functions, reveals some part of the improvements.

The following shows briefly the Telecommunication situation in Iran.
1. Fixed Communications
Fixed telephone Lines section is the most important activity of TCI, as it has planned the daily and on demand activation of fixed lines as a major and basic service on the agenda. To this effect, with the last year’s activation of more than 2,453,000 lines , as the highest number of lines activated in the recent years, the number of the whole country's fixed lines has reached to 15,340,000 in March 2004 . The penetration rate of fixed Lines has also increased from 3.33 percent in 2002 to 23.06 in March 2004 , which has surpassed the world's average.
Moreover, for the ever-increasing welfare of the nation , TCI has made every effort to focus on the development of public telephone network ,including coin box and credit card telephones , in the recent years.
Accordingly , with the increase of 16,000 local and 14,600long-distance public telephone sets in 2003 , their number in the country has reached to 114,433 and 30,372 respectively in March 2004 . The company has also put 1,300,000 analogue lines of the fixed network out of service.

2. Mobile Communications
For the mobile section, the number of the mobile phone subscribers has reached from 2,279,000 in 2002 to 3,450,000 in march 2004(1,170,000 increase during 2003 ). Currently, 708 cities and 9,800 Km
of roads are under the mobile network coverage. In addition , 900,000subscribers had access to SMS in March 2004 .
3. Rural Communications
Along with connecting the cities of the country to the Telecommunication network, TCI has made every effort to provide this valuable service for the benefit and welfare of the villages , which plays an essential role for their economical and social interrelations. In this way, by connecting 4,089 villages in 2003 and the realization of 125percent of the predefined program, the total number of the connected villages reached to 40,000 at the end of the year.

4. Data Communications
For the data section, with the installation of 3,000 ports , the data transmission network was enhanced by 689 Mbps , and its capacity reached to 11,267 Mbps , covering 331 cities in March 2004 .
Moreover , the network bandwidth between provinces , and inside the provinces was 3636 and 1,020 respectively in March 2004 . The present number of the internet users is 5,000,000 , ISPs are 648 , and finally ICPs are 18.

5. The New Telecommunication Structure
According to the approved restructuring plan, Telecommunication company of Iran (TCI) is being divided into a new Specialized Mother
Company, and the 31 other companies will operate as its subsidiaries .
They include 3 new companies named as Data communications , Mobile Communications And Backbone Communications Company; and the ministry of ICT is in charge of policy-making for all the sections. In the new structure , the private/ non-governmental sector is allowed to operate fixed , mobile , and data communications . For instance , two new private operators will start to do the job in the mobile section soon.