Iran’s dominant phone operator Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI) says the country is now home to 42 million fixed line and wireless telephony customers. TCI claims 22.8 million landline users and 17.79 million cellular subscribers; rival cellcos Taliya and MTN Irancell have another 1.5 million customers between them. More than 51,000 towns and villages are covered by the various mobile networks, according to local news agency IRNA which has seen a copy of the latest TCI market report.
Meanwhile, TCI’s wholly owned mobile subsidiary MCI says it plans to launch GPRS data services within the next few months.