During the ICT’s Technical Council session, and in presence of deputy ministers and directors of affiliated organizations, the Minister of Communication stressed on the determination of the ICT Ministry in developing e-Services in rural and less-developed regions.
According to ICT’s Public Relations Center, Dr. Vaezi also included that: “Considering the speed of which communication infrastructures are expanding all around the country, just like the growth and development of telephone land-lines in most rural areas, we shall witness considerable increase in access to high-capacity networks.”
Emphasizing on simultaneous progress of communication infrastructure development programs in parallel with the activities related to communication infrastructure development, he went on to say: “Therefore, a considerable portion of accessible services in rural and less-developed regions must be quickly offered to every individual living in these regions.”
In this session, a report was presented concerning the joint project of Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) and the ICT Research Institute (Iran Telecommunication Research Center) in regard to developing e-Services in rural and less-developed regions.
The above mentioned project was inaugurated last year and its main objectives were the preparation of a strategic document for rural e-Services development within the executive regulatory framework of Universal Service Obligation (USO), provision of an operational program and finally, implementing a number of pilot projects in deprived, semi-privileged, and privileged regions.
On one hand, this document is being prepared with the objective of creating integrity between major operational factors, select e-Services, and technical infrastructure in a constant formation, and the most important selection methods concentrate on the type of architecture and design, also benefitting from the chain of service management.
Likewise, considering the characteristics of full-capacity networks under development in rural and less-developed areas, there will be no limitations in selecting service sectors, and all sectors will be increasable regardless of the type of activity, whether information services, agriculture, education and culture, health care, the villagers interaction and increasing social participation, tourism, state representative offices, and many more.
On the other hand, considering the outcomes of the project for preparation of the strategic paper and the future planning in ICT Ministry, the program for developing e-Services in rural and less-developed regions will be considered as one of the priorities of the ministry.
In this program, in addition to ongoing expansion of communication and access networks within the framework of the Universal Service Obligation ecosystem and concentrating on science-based factors of development (such as communication and information infrastructures, human resources development, establishment of governance and institutional administrations, and in particular, innovation), the ministry will also aim for other items like the provision of the required platforms, establishment of SME incubators, content generation, and funding, with vigor and determination.