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Telecom
November 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
Iran toughens rules and restrictions on purchasing mobile phones
Iran’s Telecommunications and Accessories As- sociation has announced new rules and restric- tions set by government officials that apply to the purchase of mobile phones.
Each customer is now only permitted to purchase a single mobile and a national ID card and provid- ed code must be presented to validate the trans- actions, Fars News Agency reported on October 30, citing the changes.
The mobile phone retailing industry in Iran is ex- periencing substantial difficulties with the severe depreciation of the Iranian rial (IRR), triggered by the reimposition of heavy US sanctions, pushing up prices on most latest models by around 70% in recent months. Prior to that, a national mobile registry scheme was set up to combat black mar- ket phones – unregistered phones do not work on the telecommunications network.
Mehdi Mohebbi, chairman of the Iranian Telecom- munications and Accessories Association, said the new stipulations were set by the Organization for Consumer Protection under the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade.
Earlier in the summer, mobile phone merchants in Tehran protested against the hoarding of goods by some importers amid the rial devaluation. Unsettled by, or looking to exploit the currency instability, stores have removed phone price tags for days at a time, while formulating new prices.
On October 30, a mobile phone store in the capital was offering the iPhone X 64gb version at IRR145.4mn (€863 at the unofficial exchange rate).