Information Technology in IRAN

IT Usage

IT Usage

IT Growth

Iran is eager to get connected to the Internet. It wants the world to start referring to resources like the Center for Islamic Jurisprudence in Qum .

Internet connections have grown very rapidly since its inception some four years ago. Tens of thousands of users are being served via a few slow 9600 baud links, with networks and bulletin boards expanding everywhere. One can only speculate on why Internet links to Iran are through such slow lines. The effect of the U.S. embargo on Iran should not be discounted. Its impact has made the acquisition and maintenance of powerful servers and workstations difficult, if not impossible in certain cases. 26

Major Customers

The national academic network is known as IRANET. It is available to almost all universities and research centers in the country. Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics (IPM) is Iran's representative in the Trans-European Research and Educational Networking Association (TERENA). Other universities have access to the internal Iranian internet, and to use full Internet services, have to connect to IPM or their nearest Internet site. 27

Customer sophistication

At the universities and research and development centers the rate of IT usage is quiet high. However, outside of this circle, the

computer usage is low. Lack of availability of computers and internet services outside of this arena hinders the exchange of information

between the public and private sectors as well as national and international domains. Lack of awareness of opportunities that exist is

one of the obstacles of IT growth. As more users get access to the internet the level of demand and sophistication will increase.

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Author: Sepideh Khazai
Last Update: May 6, 1997
This pages's URL is: http://gurukul.ucc.american.edu/initeb/sk4484a/usage.htm