Iran’s MCI to switch on 5G mobile network in August: Minister

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said on Sunday that he had asked the MCI to launch its fifth generation of mobile internet at least in five locations in Tehran by the end of August or in early September.

Azari Jahromi said in a later tweet that his ministry and the MCI would unveil a laboratory for testing the ultrafast internet network within the next two weeks.

Nearly 70 million Iranian SIM card owners are currently using the third and fourth generation of mobile internet, according to statistics provided by the telecoms ministry earlier this week.  

The MCI, the largest mobile operator in the Middle East by the number of subscribers, has lagged behind Iran’s second operator MTN Irancell in terms of offering fast and affordable internet.

However, the operator is speeding up plans for switching on 5G masts in Iran as it seeks to regain its share of the data market in the country.

Azari Jahromi’s announcement on roiling out 5G networks in Iran came as the MCI opened its largest data center in the northwestern city of Tabriz.

The 250-rack data center, capable of hosting 1,500 servers, is Iran’s second largest after a 407-rack facility owned by the MTN Irancell, a facility that was opened in Tehran in late May.

The two data centers are expected to hugely boost Iran’s infrastructure for accommodating sensitive online services through the domestic servers while they would significantly increase the cloud computing capacity in the country.