In the month of Mordad 1400 (July 2021), when Ebrahim Raesi was elected as the thirteenth President of Iran, he nominated “Eisa Zar’epour” to occupy the position of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and submitted his name to the parliament.
As reported by IDEA, it was anticipated that Zar’epour (who had close collaboration with Ebrahim Raesi within the judiciary) would be able to ascend to the ministerial position with the least contention. Ultimately, this is exactly what transpired. On the third day of Shahrivar 1400(August 2021), Zar’epour secured 256 affirmative votes, 17 negative votes, and 10 abstentions, becoming the seventh Minister of Communications (after the revolution) and setting a record for the highest number of affirmative votes from the parliament for assuming this office. Consequently, one day after receiving positive votes from the representatives, on the fourth day of Shahrivar, he took the helm at the historical Golestan Palace to swiftly initiate his duties at the Ministry of Communications.
Many expected a minister who entered one of the most controversial ministries of the country with the least controversy to prioritize the development of fixed internet and the digital economy as per his promises. Zar’epour probably never envisioned those two years after commencing his work at this ministry, he would face this level of criticism from the public and businesses—particularly due to the limitations imposed on internet access. A lightning bolt of critique struck his track record of activities in this ministry.”
Statistics or Contradictions in Reporting
When examining the two-year performance of Eisa Zar’epour as the Minister of Communications in the thirteenth government, there is no established method other than analyzing the reports published by the ministry itself on its website or through native social media networks. However, a closer look at the process of disseminating these reports and statistics by the Ministry of Communications of the thirteenth government reveals that the ministry lacks a clear and transparent process for sharing documentation about its performance. These reports and statistics are sometimes made available exclusively to media outlets aligned with the government, and the information within these reports often exhibits contradictions and glaring disparities.
For instance, in an infographic recently shared by the Ministry of Communications’ public relations on local platforms (which is currently not accessible), it was announced that the expansion of the national information network had progressed from 23% at the beginning of the government’s tenure to 62%, indicating a 39% growth in the implementation of the national information network over the past two years. In contrast, in another government report, it was stated that only 23% of the national information network had been completed since the beginning of the government’s tenure, aligning with the initial figure presented in the infographic at the start of the thirteenth government. Unlike during the eleventh and twelfth government periods, where statistics about the growth of the national information network were consistently and promptly criticized and questioned by parliament members and officials of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, none of the representatives or members of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace have so far reacted to this statistical discrepancy or conducted any fact-checking.
Another contradictory statistic pertains to the growth of users of local messaging apps and social networks. In the current year’s Ordibehesht (April-May), the Ministry of Communications reported a strange statistic of a 400 to 900-fold growth in users of native messaging apps and social networks in a report titled ’20 Months of Service,’ now in a report on the government’s performance in commemoration of Government Week, it is stated that there are 7 local messaging apps and social networks with tens of millions of users, indicating a 500% to 700% growth in the number of users of these platforms compared to the beginning of the government’s tenure.
Contradictions in presenting statistics within the realm of information technology do not end here. Another statistic referenced by the Minister of Communications and his deputies in each report or statement relates to the Fiber Optic Project. In a recent infographic published by the Ministry of Communications’ public relations, it was stated that the ‘Major Fiber Optic Project for Homes and Businesses’ was initiated with the onset of the thirteenth government and had led to 5.3 million households being covered by fiber optics, the latest statistics from the Iranfttx.ir system, which illustrates the country’s fiber optic development status, displays the coverage of 3,263,137 households under fiber optics. Intriguingly, over half of this latter statistic pertains to the achievements of the previous government. An investigation by ‘Donya-ye-Eqtesad’ shows that even if we consider this 5.3 million fiber coverage, 2 million of these fiber optic coverages were established during the tenure of the twelfth government by the Telecommunication Company of Iran, and only these figures have been incorporated into the Iranfttx.ir system.
Another contradictory statistic from the thirteenth government’s Ministry of Communications pertains to the spatial sector. While once, according to an infographic titled ‘Measures Taken to Develop the Country’s Communication Infrastructure in the Past 2 Years,’ it was announced that the record for the number of space launches had been broken with 7 launches in these two years, the annual government report published on the Information Technology Organization’s website declares that until the end of the year 1401 (March 2023), there were five satellites ready for launch and that the number of satellites under construction had risen from eight at the start of the government to twelve in Mordad 1402 (July 2023). This very statistic has now varied within the annual government report in observance of Government Week.
Lack of Transparent Information Dissemination
Another significant occurrence during the past two years under the thirteenth government’s Ministry of Communications has been the lack of belief in the transparent dissemination of certain information. For instance, statistics on the growth and utilization of international bandwidth are no longer seen in quarterly regulatory reports or performance reports from the infrastructure company. Even when journalists question the management of the infrastructure company or the Minister of Communications about this, they claim that the ‘capacity exceeds demand’. However, accurate statistics on this ‘capacity exceeding demand’ haven’t been provided so far. This data, which was openly shared with the media in the past, has now turned into confidential figures.
Not only the statistics about international bandwidth usage and growth have become non-transparent in the thirteenth government, but also some information that was previously documented and accessible to the public, users, media, and online businesses has been removed from access for several months. A notable example is the Tehran IXP (Internet Exchange Point) website, which was launched by the Ministry of Communications of the twelfth government to analyze domestic traffic. However, this website went offline starting from the beginning of the Bahman month and the promised replacement system from the infrastructure company has not been implemented yet.
Furthermore, certain statistics and information that were published regularly by the regulator have been gradually deleted, restricted, or no longer released; such as the ‘Quarterly Report on the Status of Communications and Information Technology in Spring 1402’. Although this report was recently published on the regulatory website, it was immediately removed from the website and media outlets that had published it were instructed to delete it from their news platforms. Although the regulatory public relations department promised that this report was removed from the website due to a mistake and will be republished soon, nearly three weeks later, the report still hasn’t been posted on the regulatory website.
Limited Internet Amidst a Sea of Disruptions
“The government’s policy is not to restrict access to the Internet and foreign traffic. The Internet is a right for the people,” was a statement made by Eisa Zar’epour, the Minister of Communications of the thirteenth government, in his only press conference held on 27 Azar 1400. However, the state of the Internet, especially in the past year with the unprecedented filtering of foreign platforms and severe disruptions in the Internet, has pushed many citizens and businesses to their limits.
Despite Eisa Zar’epour ‘s promises to improve the country’s Internet, especially in the fixed sector, from Shahrivar 1400 until now, the Internet of the country has suffered repeated outages due to various reasons, including fires in the rooms of the infrastructure company due to power problems, power cuts in data centers, or users’ disconnections due to power cuts in the LCT building of the infrastructure. Moreover, the links connecting Iran to neighboring countries for international communication have been cut, bandwidth shortages or intentional bandwidth reduction, strict filtering, and more have led to multiple disruptions and unbearable disruptions. However, Eisa Zar’epour has consistently defended the quality of the Internet network, claiming that the quality has improved significantly compared to the past. Even when admitting to some issues, he often attributes them to the inadequacies of previous governments in infrastructure development. Despite reports indicating the critical state of the country’s Internet over the past year, he resists these claims, stating that the country’s Internet is in a favorable condition. For instance, when the Tehran E-Commerce Association released an analytical report stating that Iran’s Internet was in a critical state, with speed and quality worse than a war-torn country like Myanmar, he dismissed parts of the report as inaccurate and unfair. Despite some experts linking this report by the parliament to election-related agendas a year after the continuous Internet disruptions and low quality, this report hasn’t pushed Zar’epour to step back from his stance on the country’s Internet crisis. On the other hand, in the past year, instead of fundamentally resolving the Internet issues, services like ‘Radar Game’ have been launched to mitigate the impact of sanctions and lower ping for gamers, or it is said that an online ‘403’ system has been established to bypass the sanctions for the programmer community. These systems, according to Internet activists and experts, depict the existence of a tiered Internet managed by Zar’epour ‘s Ministry of Communications. As long as Internet disruptions persist, launching such services for a specific group does not resolve the complex issues of Internet quality and speed in the country.
In essence, during these two years and in the realm of Internet quality, Zar’epour has not taken the action that users and businesses expected from him to address certain Internet problems and limitations. When questioned about the persistence of Internet limitations, he merely reiterates that he is not the decision-maker in this domain and is just one of the twelve committee members responsible for filtering. However, it is noteworthy that when the Tochal platform is filtered under the pretext of lacking a license but essentially due to sharing an image of one of its employees without a hijab on social media, he orders an extraordinary meeting with the filtering task force. With the assistance of government members of this task force, the filtering on Tochal is lifted.
A Mirage Named Fiber Optics
In the past year, Zar’epour has repeatedly spoken about increasing Internet speed and improving its quality, emphasizing that the development of the fiber optics project would provide users with Internet speeds of 100 megabits per second and even more than one gigabit per second by the end of 1404. However, at least in the last two years, not only has the quality of fixed Internet not improved, but as mentioned earlier, intermittent Internet disruptions and usage limitations with the same old ADSL technology have frustrated many users.
For many Internet businesses, in a situation where Internet restrictions are increasing day by day, talking about fiber optics development and access to speeds over 100 megabits per second seems more like showing users a mirage. For instance, Ahmadreza Nakhjavani, the CEO of the Shatel Group, recently stated in an interview with “Donya-ye Eghtesad” that, in a context where Internet restrictions are pushing users towards using various circumvention tools, talking about the development of fixed Internet using fiber optics is questionable.
He had pointed out the decrease in bandwidth usage by users, claiming that Internet restrictions had swiftly shifted towards the development pace of the fiber optics project in the country. In the same vein, Davoud Zareyan, the Deputy of Customer Affairs at Iran Telecommunication Company, announced in a press conference that with the onset of Internet restrictions and filtering, they were unable to achieve their development goals in the fiber optics sector.
Nevertheless, Eisa Zar’epour persistently links the solution to Internet quality issues to the development of the fiber optics project in the country. However, the Spring Regulatory Report, which has also been removed from its website, indicates that the expansion of fixed Internet bandwidth is progressing at a slow pace. Despite the Ministry of Communications’ claim that by launching the fiber optics project, they have provided coverage for 100 cities and 5.3 million households, the market share of fixed bandwidth subscribers using fiber optics technology is only 2 percent.
Decline of the Digital Economy Concept
Before Zar’epour became the Minister of Communications and Information Technology of the thirteenth government, the managers of the twelfth government in the Ministry of Communications or IT industry professionals had wanted the young Minister of Communications to prioritize Internet development for the growth of digital infrastructure in the country. When Eisa Zar’epour took over the Ministry of Communications, he also established the Digital Economy Task Force to prove the ministry’s support for the digital economy and the government’s commitment to it. Now, the Ministry of Communications, in its two-year performance reports, has published statistics indicating the growth of the digital economy sector. According to the Ministry of Communications, the share of the digital economy in GDP has increased from 4.6 percent at the beginning of the thirteenth government to 5.7 percent, and as per Eisa Zar’epour ‘s promise, this share is expected to reach 10 percent by 1404. However, despite the Ministry of Communications’ claim that the share of the digital economy has now reached 5.7 percent, continuous Internet restrictions have caused significant damage and bankruptcy to many influential businesses that have contributed to the growth of the digital economy over the past year. In this context, last year, the head of the Digital Economy Committee of the parliament wrote a letter to the President, stating that with widespread Internet disruptions, the backbone of the digital economy has been broken and proposed the establishment of a compensation fund for filtering damages in the country. However, this letter and the request made in it have not received a suitable response so far. According to online business managers, while the country today faces the challenge of an uncertain future of the Internet, the statistics declared in the area of the digital economy’s GDP growth are merely numbers on paper and the concept of the digital economy no longer holds meaning in the current state of the Internet.
Comprehensive Defense of Native Messaging Apps
Perhaps one of the most notable successes of Eisa Zar’epour during his two years of activity in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has been his unequivocal and unambiguous defense of native messaging apps and social networks. He has even refrained from admitting, in various conversations and statements, that one of the main objectives of his ministry is to provide full financial and moral support to these domestic businesses. Additionally, on occasions such as power outages in data centers hosting these messaging apps, he has explained the reasons for the service disruptions in his capacity as their spokesperson.
According to the Ministry of Communications’ performance report, domestic messaging apps and social networks currently have 40 million monthly users. However, reaching this number, which has been subject to much speculation, has occurred with serious support from the Ministry of Communications. For instance, in June of this year, the Minister of Communications announced on the sidelines of a cabinet session that internet businesses operating on domestic platforms will be exempt from paying taxes as decided by the government. On the other hand, in the winter of last year, the Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, unveiled regulations supporting businesses and digital economy platforms to promote the use of domestic messaging apps and social networks. According to these regulations, businesses that transition their activities from foreign social networks to domestic platforms are supposed to receive incentives such as tax exemptions, insurance exemptions, or low-interest loans. However, almost a year has passed since the approval of this resolution, and the businesses that attempted to benefit from this support package claim that they have not been able to utilize the incentives.
Two years have passed since Eisa Zar’epour took over the management of the Ministry of Communications, yet not only has the basic service quality, namely the internet, not improved according to his promises, but the state of internet access for users has become more chaotic than ever. The widespread filtering of foreign social networks, the deletion of transparent statistics and reports regarding the state of communications and information technology from the ministry’s website, the prevention of the publication of selected statistics on the progress of various communication and information technology fields (which do not match with other reports), as well as wholeheartedly supporting domestic messaging apps and social networks and allocating a significant budget to them, raising the tariff ladder for internet and postal services in silence, and increasing the maintenance costs of landline telephones, among others, compose a list of achievements by Eisa Zar’epour. Now, two years have passed since he took over the reins of the Ministry of Communications of the thirteenth government. Many users and businesses believe that even if there were any positive aspects in Zar’epour ‘s two-year activities, they have been overshadowed by the ambiguity of his silent implementation of protective plans behind the scenes and his passivity in executing restrictive internet policies. Consequently, he has ushered in discouraging days for the ICT industry and the digital economy of the country.
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