Financial Tribune - Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) has launched a new project in collaboration with Chinese networking and telecommunications equipment and services company Huawei Technologies, to integrate and upgrade landline and mobile telecommunications network.

According to Babak Tarakome, chairman of the board of directors of TCI, Huawei has started workshops for Iranian technicians who will assist the Chinese firm in project implementation, local technology website CITNA reported.

�The deal with Huawei will not be the last in this area and several other contracts with other foreign firms for integration and upgrading Iran�s telecoms network will be signed in the near future,� he said.

�The project will guarantee the future of TCI in Iran,� he maintained. It will also enable telecoms companies to provide services whenever and wherever there is demand through an integrated and fully automated system.

He added, �When the project bears fruit it will vastly improve the domestic telecoms network.�

According to Tarakome �In several municipalities, including Tehran, individual projects have been launched �The new scheme will integrate and increase the pace of the implementation of the project.�

Integration of the country�s mobile and landline networks will cut operational costs and enhance the quality of services.

Currently, TCI is purchasing and importing the required equipment for the project, he said, without providing details of the equipment.

Technical Detail

The scheme includes two individual projects IPNI and POTN.

In order to cater to the needs of the market and the rapid growth of mobile Internet services, operators and providers need to reconstruct their existing IP networks (Internet Protocol network).

The reconstruction includes IP Network Integration (IPNI) and evolution of mobile backhaul networks.

Mobile backhaul is the use of wireless communications systems to get data from an end user to a communications center.

IPNI means all data demanded and sent by users --- whether using mobile-based or landline-based Internet services � will be gathered in a single communications center.

The monitoring procedure would not target civil privacy and will only be used to maintain and sustain the data transaction, it is said.

Additionally, the project will see the upgrading of Iran�s transmission technology to a new level using Huawei�s Packet Optical Transport Network (POTN).

The bandwidth required for 3G base stations is tens of megabytes per second, and that for 4G base stations can be hundreds of megabytes per second. Iranian operators need to upgrade their transport networks in order to provide the required bandwidth.

In March 2014, President Hassan Rouhani�s administration was to launch a similar scheme with the help of KT Corporation � South Korea�s largest telephone company. Officials in Tehran had then estimated that the project would be carried out in one year.

Several obstacles delayed the project. The telecom infrastructure was inadequate and local professionals lacked essential technological knowledge. Furthermore, state-owned and private telecom companies and Internet service providers were reluctant to hand over part of their authority on the network to the government.