TEHRAN - Quarterly figures by Iran’s telecoms regulator (CRA) show access to broadband internet in the country increased in the quarter to June to cover 128% of the population, up one percentage point from the previous quarter.
The figures published by the official IRNA news agency showed that the total number of broadband subscriptions in Iran had reached 108.87 million in the three months to late June, including nearly 97.84 million mobile broadband subscriptions and more than 11 million fixed lines.
The figures showed that the number of registered SIM cards in Iran had reached nearly 208 million with the first mobile operator the MCI responsible for more than 106 million of the subscriptions.
MCI’s active SIM cards were around 75.5 million while the second operator MTN Irancell had more than 60.7 million active subscribers and the third operator Rightel had nearly 5.3 million users in June, showed the figures.
The figures were slightly down from the data published by the CRA in the quarter to late March as demand for internet in Iran has dropped following an easing of coronavirus restrictions in the country.
The June quarter figures showed that the number of cell towers rolled out by the three operators in towns, villages and roads across Iran exceeded 8,500.
They showed that fourth generation (4G) internet coverage had expanded to nearly 36,000 BTS sites in Iran while 3G internet was available on nearly 40,000 sites and nearly 45,000 BTS sites were offering 2G internet.