Page 50 - IRANRptDec21

Some 70% of jobs have been lost in Iran’s hotel industry in the past year, with local tourism essentially non-existent on a short-term perspective, he added. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, 240,000 people were directly employed and 550,000 were indirectly employed in the Iranian tourism industry, industry estimates suggest.
9.1.6 TMT sector news
Mobile phone shipments worth more than $2.5bn make up 8% of Iran’s imports in first eight Persian months
Iran launches domestically produced 5G core network
Mobile phone shipments with a value topping $2.5bn made up 8% of Iran’s imports in the first eight months of the Persian calendar year (March 21-November 21), IRIB reported on December 1. No other import category had a higher value, it added.
The value marked an increase of 111% y/y, the media outlet wrote, adding that official mobile phone shipments in volume terms rose by 47% y/y over the eight-month period.
In recent years, Iran cracked down on black market "suitcase" imports of mobile phones by bringing in registration requirments for any new devices being connected to the telecoms network.
Sadad Informatics, an Iranian company known for supporting interbank transfers, has announced that it has developed Iran's first fifth-generation (5G) core network, ILNA reported on September 21.
Iran’s technological core networks have been supported by companies including Huawei and Nokia, but this announcement indicates that the country has managed to develop its own such backbone infrastructure for the first time. Sadad CEO Mohsen Alipour was reported as saying that the business will be able to offer 5G support and technology services to local internet providers in coming months.
"Today, we unveil 100% Iranian 5G and negotiations and consultations with domestic operators and internet companies have begun. Aany operator who wants to use 5G can use this service from the day it operates [some time] in the next 3 months," he said.
Alipour went on to criticise the global community for holding a “monopoly” on the technology, stating that sanctions had blocked Iran from accessing the latest internet technology.
Alipour said the Sadad 5G system meets all Iranian telecommunications standards, whilst also stating that the company could also offer foreign internet operators access to the technology, despite sanctions stopping sales of such technology by Iranian companies.
He added: "The 5G platform is the same as the 4G platform, but it has better internet quality and we offer the fifth generation internet services."
Iran already has a limited 5G network in Tehran and other cities, thanks to the two biggest mobile operators in the country, Mobile Communications of Iran (MCI) and partly South African-owned MTN-Irancell. The two operators have a near duopoly on the market.
Despite US sanctions squeezing Iran, it has managed to push ahead with indigenous 5G technologies including a deal signed in June by MCI and SAIPA, Iran’s second-largest car producer.
The tie-up aims for an integration between the nationalised car corporation and MCI. If the project is successful, it will allow a driver and SAIPA to find faults in a newly produced vehicle in real-time and call breakdown services before the vehicle fails.
MCI is the largest mobile operator in Iran with over 20mn permanent subscribers. Currently, more than 100mn MCI SIM cards are in operation,
50 IRAN Country Report December 2021 www.intellinews.com