Iran finishes preparations to launch 5G internet: Minister

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said on Thursday that Iran had carried out all preparations needed for launching the 5G network.

“The regulatory is introducing the rules … we hope we could implement a first version of the 5G network in Iran next year and start offering services,” said Jahromi.

The minister said super-fast internet services powered by the 5G technology is a need for businesses in Iran. He added that his ministry had issued a call on experts for contributing to the quicker implementation of the new network in Iran.

Despite facing a harsh regime of American economic sanctions, Iran has made huge strides in expanding the coverage of the fourth-generation of fast internet services, known as 4G, to almost all cities, towns and villages across the country.

Iran says dealt with large-scale DDoS cyber attackIranian telecoms authorities say a DDoS cyber attack was dealt with on Saturday.

Current government data shows nearly 70 million people, including the population in 1,242 Iranian cities as well as 80 percent of villages with over 20 households, have access to broadband services offered by three mobile operators.

That figure was about 300,000 in 2013 when the current administrative government led by President Hassan Rouhani came to office, said Jahromi on Thursday.

The announcement on Iran’s progress in internet communications come nearly a week after authorities reported a major cyber attack affecting services across the country.

Users experienced disruptions to the services last week as a result of the powerful distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that began midday on February 8 and continued for hours.