ICT Ministry Public Relation Department reported – In Iran’s 13th International Exhibition of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Networking (Iran Telecom Expo. 2012), 185 Iranian companies and producing units and also 22 foreign companies from 8 countries including Germany, Britain, Italy, China, Switzerland, South Korea and Poland have shown their cutting edge technologies. ICT ministry Subordinate companies, Iran Telecommunication group companies, Iran First, Second, Third and fourth mobile operators and private sectors were the other participants in the show. In addition, some of Iranian industry universities, new agencies and magazines related to telecommunication industry were present too. Infrastructure Communications Company, Rules regulating and Radio Communication Organization and Iran Telecommunication Group have held some workshops and seminars alongside the expo. Iran’s 13th International Exhibition of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Networking (Iran Telecom Expo. 2012) was held in an indoor hall about 26500 square meter and also outdoor space from Nov. 14 until Nov. 17 2012. This exhibition which was a appropriate place for making relation between costumers and producers of goods and services, transferring modern technologies into Iran, encouraging and exhorting Iranian producers for active challenge and provide the needs of this industry, presenting and introducing latest achievements and creativities of Iranian producers and companies to the visitors and people.
The Opening of the Show
This expo was opened with the attendance of telecommunication heads of ECO member countries because was held alongside the 1st ECO ministerial Summit on ICT which was held form Nov.11 to Nov. 13. Dr. Taghipour in the inaugural ceremony of Iran 13th Telecom said: this exhibition is held yearly with attendance of Iranian and foreign operators and the needs of today market and the services that have more shares in communication services highly considered in this expo. He believes that Telecom Exhibition is a place for holding meetings, visits and making communicative, trade, scientific and technical relations and stated: Iranian companies can interest the other countries to participate in this exhibition with booming their activities. The minister of Information Technology and Communication stated that: “statistics shows that the content services have more shares in the world process in comparison to communication installation services. This matter is so clear that in 2012 Telecom, the concentration is more on presenting new communicative services in additional value and mobile network. He also talked about investing $1.5 billion by the 4th mobile operator for serving Iranian houses with optical fiber and said: according the plans, this operator has been investing $1.5 billion up to now and its duty will increase according the needs of this market after the first 8 years. He emphasized on growing the cooperation between the ECO member countries and their technical, research and investing experiences exchange in this field and stated: In the 13th Telecom Expo, we have tried to provide all essential facilities for the participants and ICT industry owners and participants have been obliged to present their active and innovative services in this show. As the result of the attendance of foreign guests in the inaugural ceremony of Iran 13th Telecom, we expect to have more foreign participants in Iran Telecom Expo in the next years. So, the 13th International Exhibition of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Networking (Iran Telecom 2012) was held in Tehran International Fair for a 4-day period from Wednesday, November 14, to Saturday, November 17.
13th Telecom Special features:
Attendance of Iran new participants such as the 3rd and 4th and also re-start of Iran first prepaid SIM operator (Talia) are some of this Telecom special features which differed this Show from the previous ones:
The 4th Operator:
The 4th Operator which is Iran Optical Fiber Operator has experienced its first appearance in Telecom expo.
The 3rd Operator (Rightel):
The 3rd Operator (Rightel) has been introduced its services to the participants and users in a big indoor and outdoor hall. Rightel officials believed that most of mobile phone users have known nothing about the difference between the 3rd generation of mobile phone and old ones and we must inform them about what services presented in this generation. So, Iran 3rd Mobile Operator (Rightel) has showed and introduced itself and the services in this Telecom. It is necessary to mention that Rightel Network is now active and works in 45 cities around the country and has been sold 100,000 SIM cards during this period.
Iran Telecommunication Group:
Iran Telecommunication Company (ITC) has participated in 2012 Telecom Expo by the name of Iran Telecommunication Group for 3 successive years of participation. This group included: subordinate, direct-cooperator and stockholder companies. Mobile Communications Company, 8 provincial Telecommunication companies, Mobin Net, Mobin One, Talia, Jiring, Mobin First Services and Rahpouyan are some this group companies. The officials of ITC named increasing the numbers of Iran ITC group members, presenting direct services in both home phone and mobile phone, serving people with new additional value services and performing services which expert team worked on them during the last whole year, as the most important differences which this company showed in this Telecom. Mostafa Seyyed Hashemi, the chairman of Iran Telecommunication Company with pointing the plans of this company has for developing fiber optical services in Iran declared: accordingly in the next 5 years which one year has been passed, 80% of the services is presented with copper wires and the remaining via optical fiber. Mozaffar Poor Ranjbar, the Managing Director of Iran Telecommunication Company alongside his visit from the 13th Telecom said that Iran Telecommunication Company has been designed 4 projects for Iran made production including one software, a hybrid facilities (Voice in Internet) and syntactic switches which make us needless from buying foreign made facilities. He emphasized that this plans are presented as pilot plans and will be completed up to the end of current year as a test and we welcome all suggestions from the experts who work on this field. Also in this Expo, ITC has presented new services in its APTV showcase including Video Conference and sending SMS via home phone. Presenting voice call service codes with the slogan of “Your Phone Number is your Name” is one of the other services. Iran Telecommunication Company has showed the collection of first mobile phones in the 13th Telecom Exhibition. The chairman of TCT company first services has informed the visitors about a new ADSL brand.
NANO SIM cards, JIRING wallet
But in this expo, HAMRAH e AVAAL and IRANCELL, the old Iranian opponents and powerhouse have been showed themselves like the past and their pavilions were the most crowded ones in the 13th Telecom. Both of them have tried to attract visitors by presenting their new services and holding various competitions. The pavilion of JIRING services which belonged to Hamrah e Avval Company (MCI) and was one of the most crowded, has experienced its own third year of presence in Telecom. Mobile wallet, Mobile Bank, JIRING Card, Mobile Ticket and ATP were such services JIRING presented in this Telecom. JIRING is in fact a system for managing financial affairs which can be used for money transferring, credit buying, prepaid SIM cards and bills payment. Accordingly, Vahid Sadoughi the CEO of Iran MCI company with pointing the number of JIRING active users which are about 32 million, stated that: after so many negotiations, Iran Central Bank has been issued the license of presenting financial services via mobile phones. “In the previous year, 300 thousand Jiring packages have been sold through phones and SIM cards bundling and this year, we inaugurate the first chain store of Iran First Mobile Operator as a sample in the 13th Telecom Expo and open the first chain store formally in Holy Mashad in the next few days which presents mobile phone, phone, internet and WiMax services to the people”, he continued. The CEO of Iran First Operator (MCI) mentioned that equalizing Postpaid SIM cards costs rate will implement and said: now, equalizing the costs and omitting transferring costs between MCI Prepaid SIM cards got possible and we are ready to flat the network between Postpaid SIM cards after issuing the related license by Iran Communication regulatory Organization. Atoofi, Marketing Deputy of MCI Company, also talked about presenting 450 additional value services by this company in 2012 Telecom Expo and said: “Iran 1st Operator additional value services are showed in this exhibition by 4 companies which are Mobin One, Hamakaran Rah Pouyan Hamta, Tele Promo and Pardis e Avval and have 12 million users under cover. IRANCELL, the multi-national MTN operator was participate in this show like the past and released its “Nano SIM cards” as the new generation of SIM Cards in this Expo. Introducing the functional mobile phones software with the name of Charsoo which have different software compatible with all mobile phones operating systems was one of the other plans has been presented by IRANCELL. Also a conference was held by IRANCELL which introduced the products and its trading and organizational methods for the organizations and companies. Presenting VPN service (the virtual Dedicated wireless network) on WiMax, investing on presenting dedicated wireless bandwidth services in more than 3 Mb/s speed, are the other services exhibited by Mobin Net Company in this Telecom.
Talia:
2012 Telecom witnessed the fresh reappearance of Iran first prepaid SIM card Operator which is Talia with the slogan of “The New Season of Communication”. Talia’s management change was maybe a cause for the eye-catching presence of Talia and this Telecom is the best opportunity for introducing the new Talia. As what the officials of Talia said, the new Talia is concentrated on quality and serving new communicative services to the users such as additional value services and also GPRS services. The Marketing and Sales deputy of Talia believed that this operator is not an opponent for the other operators and its target market is only special users, but before the ownership change, there were 750 thousand SIM cards sold in the market which only 200,000 of them are active in the network now. The Talia managers group has been decided to bring their offline SIM cards users back to the network with some special and useful methods. Besides, the CEO of Iran Telecommunication Company talked about the 10-years extension of Talia prepaid SIM cards network contract. Mostafa Seyyed Hashemi said that according the ownership change in Talia project and remaining less than 3 years till this contractor end time, the managing board of Iran Telecommunication has decided to built a 10-years extension to the contract for renewing this operator again. He mentioned that with the planning made, 6 million Talia SIM cards will sell up by Talia network and continued: the new owners of Talia try their best to recover and renew this network and challenge the present operators. According to financial estimations, after privatizing Telecommunication Company, Talia project has imposed about $ 50 trillion tolls to Iran Telecommunication, Seyyed Hashemi said. He also asserted that we try to balance Talia damages and decrease it to zero point and earn money from.
Final Words:
Although 2012 Telecom number of visitors and participation of foreign companies have decreased in comparison the previous years, but there is no doubt that with growing the users of communicative and telecommunication services, this market require presenting new and modern services. This need is the most important factor for making a challenge between this industry services presenters and cause some changes in the operation of governmental and private sectors. The 13th Telecom although has been far from the ideal quality but it shows the serious efforts of this zone activists for a fair and healthy challenge. With the capacity presented by the activists in 13th Telecom Expo, we are expecting more weighty and powerful shows in the next years. In necessary to mention that holding International Telecommunication, Information Technology and Communication (Iran Telecom) yearly, has been started from 2000 with support of the ministry of Information Technology and Communication and continued until this year.