Irancell Chief Executive Officer announced government's direct and indirect revenues from Irancell project stand at IRR 138,000 billion.
In the press conference held on the occasion of Irancell 7th launch anniversary, Alireza Ghalambor Dezfouli said, "Of this amount, IRR 85,000 billion has been earned directly by the government from Irancell project over the past seven years.", according to Irancell Public Relations.
He further elaborated that the national interests achieved from Irancell investment include actualization of privatization and implementation of general policies under Article 44 of the Constitution and establishment of a safe platform for further foreign investments, successful running of a joint local and foreign company, contribution to materialization of the state and parliament policies related to stabilization and reduction of the prices, increase in mobile phone penetration rate and going beyond the project penetration rates, actualization of the 2.75 Generation technology in Iran, creation of over 42,000 direct and indirect jobs, reducing government involvement while increasing its revenues, outstanding reduction in SIM card price, immediate provision of SIM cards to the subscriber, actualization of more than US$1.2 billion worth of foreign investment, and encourage foreign investment on Iranian projects.
From among Irancell main services and products, Dezfouli had an indication to provision of the needed infrastructures for materialization of digital services, designing business solutions to help enterprises establish an efficient, quick and flexible organization, qualitative and quantitative improvement of content provision platforms, provision of the most flexible and cost-effective tariffs in the country, realization of 100 percent increase in data traffic in comparison with the previous year for the second consecutive year, provision of business solutions to more than 300 companies and organizations, increasing USSD sales share by 13 times as much as that of in the previous year, raising the multimedia content usage rate to 37 percent by offering new services, provision of *7# service for Irancell direct recharging, and provision of *100# service as Irancell BAJEH to offer mobile banking services as among the main services and products offered by Irancell.
Irancell AppStore, voice SMS, VOIP, Info Finder, Call Me Now, WiMAX Hot Spot, Nano SIM, Pay For Me, LB-Refill and LB Charging, Combo Bolton,
*100#,
*7#, and My Irancell are also among new services Irancell has introduced over the past year, Dezfouli added.
The official went on to say that the CRA assesses all mobile operators based on seven criteria including management and leadership, human resources, KPIs, organizational processes, customer feedbacks, resources and society feedbacks, and cooperation based on various indicators, and added, "According to these indicators, Irancell has managed to win the first rank among all other mobile operators, leaving MCI behind to rank second."
Elaborating on Irancell's rank among the top 100 Iranian companies based on assessments made by the Industrial Management Organization in 1391, Irancell CEO announced that the Company ranks 24 in the field of Sales and Revenues, 6 with regards to the total amount of sales and revenue among non-holding companies, 15 as per its income and profit margins, 8 in profitability, 10 with regards to the Return on Assets, and 3 regarding the Return on Net Worth.
"Irancell was among the top ten companies in the assessments made by the Industrial Management Organization in 1390 as well; this is while no other operator had such simultaneous progress in all these indicators in three consecutive years," he said.
Dezfouli announced Irancell's share from Iran's mobile market at 46.1 percent and added, "During the last seven years, Irancell has managed to create over 42,000 direct and indirect job opportunities across the country (about 2,000 direct employments and over 40,000 indirect employments across the technical outsourcing network) and has also indirectly created job opportunities through its sales and support. The company also cooperates with 300 companies in the fields of technical issues, engineering, and services, over 18 companies for provision of contents and over 20 companies for sales and distribution, and interacts with all Iranian banks."
According to Dezfouli, for further development in its business, Irancell has helped new businesses by introducing new businesses and establishing a platform for e-commerce through cooperating with banks and payment services companies such as STK-based Mobile Banking and USSD-based Mobile Banking, developing a business of digital content through creating proper infrastructures for value-added services and cooperating with over 18 percent of Content Providers which could also be expanded to individuals and companies producing applications, creating a safe platform for data transfer, cooperating in establishment of new and modern businesses including the automatic utility-meters reading system and smart management of buildings, establishing LBS infrastructure, and cooperation with various companies in provision of LBS services, designing and setting up tracking systems for fleet vehicles and distributing companies.
Speaking on Irancell coverage obligations, Dezfouli said, "According to Irancell License Agreement, the company is obliged to cover 9,089 km of the country's roads in its eighth year of operation; this is while we have managed to go beyond these obligations by 247 percent and cover 22,412 km of roads instead."
"In addition, Irancell was also supposed to reach 74.29 percent in population coverage in the eighth year of its operations, while the figure now stands at 82.53 percent," he added.
According to Dezfouli, the Average Dropped Call Rate should be reduced to 1.5 percent in the seventh contractual year and to 1 percent in the eighth year; while it currently amounts to 0.77 percent and the Call Success Rate amounts to 98.2 percent.
He added, "98.5 percent of data coverage in the areas covered under Irancell Mobile Network is EDGE-based. The maximum speed currently stands at 220 kbps and the average speed experienced by the subscribers exceeds 100 kbps".
Dezfouli said the data traffic in Irancell network had been doubled over the past year and further added, "This is much more than the global model, i.e. voice growth rate is 16 percent, SMS has grown by 21 percent and MMS by 83 percent, and our subscribers are much more interested in using multimedia products".
He said the content traffic rate had been increased by 37 percent from the beginning of the current year till the month of Mehr in comparison with the year 1391, and the number of content providers had been increased by 100 percent compared to the last year.
According to Irancell CEO, currently there are more than 3 million and 80 thousand sales points to access Irancell sales network as well as over 2 million and 800 thousand Irancell e-charge sales points nationwide.
He listed the increased number of sales points by more than the number of subscribers, access to Irancell services using the country's banking system through 27 banks via their ATMs, Internet, POS, Web kiosk, mobile phones, M-Banking and direct PINless recharge and IVR among Irancell achievements.
Dezfouli further added, "Irancell e-charge sales have increased by 13 times and accounts for 17 percent of the total sold airtime".
He said Irancell was responsive to the customers on a 24x7x365 basis and added, "We provide response to more than 1.6 million calls per month in our call centers for mobile and WiMAX subscribers, our authorized dealers, and the corporate customers support centers. As recorded, more than 95 percent of the calls are responded in less than 35 seconds".
Dezfouli also revealed launch of customer satisfaction appraisal system after completion of each call, sending the information and settings required by the subscribers during the calls through SMS, and development of specialized Customer Relations software via 'My Irancell' application.
He reiterated, "Using Roaming, Irancell postpaid SIM Cards are connected to 420 operators in 156 countries worldwide, Prepaid SIM Cards are connected to 168 operators in 75 countries around the world, and Data is connected to 301 operators in 115 countries. Also capability to use the destination operator's recharge cards, offering up to 74 percent discount for Hadj roaming and possibility to use Irancell SIM Cards in 21 international airlines for the first time in Iran are among other achievements by Irancell".
Dezfouli defined Irancell business solutions as a range of end-to-end communication solutions provided upon cooperation by the respective business to determine telecom needs, come up with solutions and implement the same to develop the business, facilitate communications and increase telecom security and non-stop access.
According to Dezfouli, Secure Data Transfer Network, MVPN, Virtual Private Network, USSD Private, Messaging SDP, organizational mobile newsletter, corporate RBT, virtual organization, centralized bill, and payment and banking solutions are among Irancell corporate products.
Dezfouli described Irancell as the only provider of comprehensive system for VAS and added, "This system enables the VAS providers to access the operator’s communication platform and offer their products via standard API in the shortest time".
Steady tariffs during the past eight years, continuing with WOW which offers 20 percent discount on the costs, offering flat tariff since the beginning of the launch of network and having no mobility charges were mentioned by Dezfouli as some of Irancell network features.
Irancell CEO also presented a report on WiMAX network saying, "Irancell WiMAX has 420,000 subscribers with a 33 percent growth during the last year, 786 dealers, 765 WiMAX BTS and 35 cities under coverage".
According to Dezfouli, the cities of Tehran, Karaj, Mashhad, Tabriz, Shiraz, Esfahan, Ahwaz, Rey, Paakdasht, Gharchak, Andisheh, Eslamshahr Qods, Shahriar, Dezfoul, Varamin, Fardis, Toos Industrial Town, Charmshahr Industrial Town, Atlas Industrial Town, Mahmoudabad, Golestan, Khomeinishahr, Khoorasgan, Shiraz Industrial Town, Shahinshahr, Sardrood, Jey Industrial Town, Kashan, Baharestan, Hashtgerd, Sabzevar, Andimeshk and Abadan are presently covered under Irancell WiMAX.
Dezfouli added, "Irancell WiMAX data traffic has grown by 69 percent as of the beginning of current year till Mehr".
In the 7
th anniversary of Irancell mobile network launch, he announced Data platform, corporate products, mobile payment methods, digital content, VAS, Location-Based Services and cloud computing as the seven top services provided by this operator.
Regarding the seven characteristics of Irancell network, Dezfouli mentioned extensive radio coverage in line with reaching the population coverage in different regions in Iran, IP-based infrastructure with great capabilities including traffic engineering and congestion control, rapid call and data transfer, applying global standards and replacing them with upgraded generations in line with network development, launching advanced technologies of new mobile generations to create network protection layers, establishing redundant network to protect the network in crisis or natural disasters, taking immediate 24/7 measures for removing the probable failures, establishing a network management center to monitor and provide comprehensive network management and network quality online control.