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Iran Telecommunications Report Q3 2009Product Type: Market Research ReportPublished by: Business Monitor International Published: August 2009 Product Code: R302-7566 Description BMI’s latest update on the Iranian telecoms market contains revised forecasts for the development of thecountry’s fixed-line, internet and mobile markets. At the time of writing, there was a limited amount ofdata available for the period ending December 2008. The latest data to be published by Iran’s incumbentoperator, Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI), relate to the end of September 2008. However,with Iran’s calendar year having ended on March 20 2009, new figures are expected to be publishedshortly; these figures will then be incorporated into BMI’s next report on the Iranian telecoms market.Of Iran’s mobile operators, only MTN Irancell had published data relating to the end of March 2009.Iran’s fastest growing mobile network operator reported a total of 18.252mn mobile telephony customersat the end of March, up by 14% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) and 102% year-on-year (y-o-y). The mostsignificant development to have occurred within Iran’s mobile market was the May 2009 announcementthat the government had withdrawn the mobile licence awarded to Etisalat of the UAE in December2008. Etisalat has expressed plans to launch commercial services in the second half of 2009 and hadstated that it intended to offer HSDPA (3.5G) services from launch. The regulator withdrew the joint 2Gand 3G concession, claiming that Etisalat had failed ‘to give necessary guarantees and licence fees ontime’. Etisalat is understood to be considering whether it has grounds for an appeal. However, accordingto reports, Iran’s authorities are already discussing the possibility of awarding the licence to Kuwait’sZain Group. Zain came second in the original auction. Other recent developments which BMI perceives to have potentially negative implications for Iran’stelecoms market include the news, in May 2009, that Iran’s authorities had blocked access to the socialnetworking website Facebook. According to reports, the site was banned because supporters of a leadingopposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, were using Facebook to campaign on his behalf. MirHossein Mousavi, a former prime minister and reform candidate, was seen as a serious challenge toPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was seeking a second four-year term in the country’s elections inJune 2009. The subsequent disputed election result resulted in an eruption of online activity, followed byan array of site blocking. The government’s recent attempt to control the use of Facebook in Iran is just the latest of several moveswhich have been aimed at restricting the use of popular communications services - including broadbandinternet content and mobile data services. State interventions in the sector are seen as one of the biggestuncertainties facing the long-term development of mobile data and broadband internet services in Iran.Iran remains in 11th place in our Business Environment Rankings for the Middle East, despite gaining aslightly higher overall score. The higher score reflects a stronger performance for Iran in the telecomsmarket category. However, the higher score in this category has been counterbalanced by a weakercountry risk rating. Table of Contents
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