Iran's Minister of Information and Communications Technology Seyed Sattar Hashemi inaugurated 98 telecom projects worth about US dollars 9 million during his fourth provincial visit to the northern Province of Mazandaran on Wednesday and Thursday to accelerate the development of telecommunications infrastructure.
A
day before his visit, a team of deputy ministers and directors of the ICT Ministry
traveled to the province with the aim of carrying out a field study of the
province's telecommunications status, assessing the progress of
telecommunications projects, and finalizing the official inauguration of the projects.
The team
traveled across Mazandaran Province closely examining the telecommunications
situation, and identifying and documenting local challenges and needs. These
field visits formed the roadmap for the minister's final decisions about the
projects in the Provincial Administrative Council which was held on Thursday.
The
projects included the development and upgrading of mobile phone sites, the
launch of new sites in less-developed areas, and the expansion of the fiber
optic network (FTTH) for homes and businesses.
Mobile
phone operators also significantly increased their coverage capacity and
quality of services by creating fifth-generation (5G) sites and upgrading
existing networks in urban and rural areas, with an investment of about US
dollars 7 million.
The
provincial visits by government officials in Iran have been in practice as
means of face-to-face meeting with the people and to hear their voices in
addition to meeting local officials.
In
2025, Hashemi traveled to the Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad Province and
Qazvin province. He paid his first provincial visit to the holy city of
Mashhad, capital of the Razavi Khorasan Province last November, after he was
approved as the ICT minister in August 2024 by the Iranian parliament.