The number of optical fiber coverage has crossed the border of 4 million households and is increasing at a better speed than before, but still the operators are not united in the effort to attract. On the other hand, the Ministry of Communications expects the operators of this project to seek to increase their fiber optic subscribers
According to the IDEA, statistics announced by the Ministry of Communications on the iranfttx website shows the number of fiber optic coverage in the country has reached 4,126,530 households. Based on this, this project has progressed 21% to date. On the other hand, there is still no news of a significant increase in the number of connected users. The total number of optical fiber users in the country is 263,000, and VDSL users have reached nearly 190,000 subscribers.
At the current pace, reaching the goal of 20 million covers by the end of next year is doubtful; But recently, the Iranian Telecommunication Company has joined the fiber project and announced that it will create 5 million coverages this year. If this goal is implemented, half of the project’s goals will be achieved by the end of this year.
Some users may subscribe all the way using fiber optic cable, which is called FTTH (Fiber To The Home), but the other way is that fiber optic cable to the building (FTTB (Fiber To The Building)) or the nearest Kafu goes to the FTTC (Fiber To The Cabinet) user and the rest of the connection is made with VDSL copper cable.
When is the time to connect?
For several months now, the Ministry of Communications no longer announces fiber optic coverage and connection statistics on a monthly basis, and only annual graphs can be viewed on the iranfttx website.
According to these data, the number of optical fiber coverage reached 2 million 465 thousand households at the end of 2022, and now, during the first 8 months of the year, about 2 million 660 thousand have been added to these coverages, which shows that the progress of the project has increased. . But this is not the case for connected users.
Fiber customers were 421 thousand users by the end of last year, and now they are about 453 thousand users.
The operators in this project often say that they are not in a hurry to attract users, and when the number of their fiber optic coverage increases significantly, the time for marketing and attracting customers will also come.
In this regard, Masoud Bemanipour, CEO of Pishgaman, said: The number of covers that have been converted into subscriptions has been low. We prefer not to advertise extensively for fiber as the cities are not yet fully covered. For example, the coverage of Yazd province will be complete by the end of this year, and then we will start advertising. In every city where our coverage reaches 80%, we do extensive advertising for that city.
Sadegh Abbasi Shahkooh, the adviser to the Minister of Communications and the operator of the optical fiber project in this ministry, also said that in the best case, 25% of the optical fiber covers will be converted into connections.
Abbasi Shahkooh continued: Even now, in the places where the coverage has been completed, there are very few connections because our priority is to create coverage.
Not all officials of the Ministry of Communications are like Abbasi Shahkooh. Mehdi Rouhani nejad, the strategic deputy of the Radio Communications Regulatory Organization, is one of the people who is worried about the lack of growth in the number of optical fiber connections.
On October 31st, he told a group of operators: We try to interfere in the operators’ business as little as possible and enter wherever necessary, but when we see that the operators do not emphasize much on the connection, we have a question mark that our incentives are not enough for coverage. They don’t think about getting their money back. The main purpose is connection, but everywhere in the world, the regulator mandates coverage.
The CEO of Pishgaman answered him in the same meeting and said: The regulator should not put pressure on the operator to establish a connection. Now some provincial ICT departments are telling us that you have to create a connection, which is not true.
Fiber for what content?
Ruhollah Rezaei, Irancell’s legal and regulatory vice president, confirmed Bemanipour’s point of view and said: We should focus on creating coverage in the next two or three years, and the secondary goal should be to connect people to fiber.
Irancell’s representative, however, considered another factor to be effective in this and criticized the filtering policies and said: If we want to increase the volume of internet demand, we must pay attention to the content. For the development of the fiber economy, it is necessary to consider less restrictive policies with determination and seriousness.
Even exactly one day before that (October 31st, 2023), Ali Asghar Ansari, the deputy director of strategic planning and supervision of the Ministry of Communications, said at the IRAN 5G event: 5G is not justified with the current tariff and contents.
Ansari, like the representative of Irancell, did not introduce the withdrawal of filtering policies as having an effect on the growth of content, but in any case, a voice from the Ministry of Communications has also emphasized the impact of content on internet demand.
Alireza Esfandi, the deputy director of Rightel, another operator of this project, had previously told about the importance of improving content to increase people’s desire for fiber.
In addition to all this, according to the manager of this project, the government spends 25 thousand billion Tomans in the project from the royalties of fixed and mobile operators; But the entire implementation of this project at today’s prices requires 75 thousand billion Tomans.
Providing this amount from the operators for fiber laying is not without challenges and it can be expected that the cost of the project will be more than this.
Despite all this, the fiber project, which the ministry is looking for a name for, is still breathing and operators hope it will emerge more vibrant.
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