Iran’s mobile market profile (Iran)Iran with a population over twice as high as any other of the countries of the Middle East has low mobile penetration levels. This scenario is changing and the market is seeing high mobile growth, particularly since the launch of a second national operator in late 2006. During 2007 the Iranian government announced that it would split up and sell off the state owned Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI), as part of its program to privatise 80% of state-owned businesses. Previously the telecom market was a state-owned monopoly with the exception of retail Internet service provision.
Irancell and TCI are currently the only two mobile operators working in Iran.
MegaFon, Russia’s third largest mobile operator, is ready to invest around €3 billion ($4.6 billion) in its business in Iran. In addition, UAE-based Etisalat, the second-largest Arab phone company by market value, is considering investments in Iran’s mobile-phone market.
