In an exclusive interview with Capacity for the October/November issue, CEO Alessandro Talotta said that equipment “is being installed in Tehran right now”.
Sparkle, which is a subsidiary of Italian operator TIM, announced its partnership with Telecommunication Infrastructure Company (TIC) of Iran in September 2016. The aim was to extend Sparkle’s global backbone.
TIC and Sparkle signed the partnership agreement at a 2016 conference in Tehran. The deal included the provision of a point of presence (PoP) in the Iranian capital.
Talotta said at the time: “This agreement combines TIC’s expertise in domestic and regional markets with Sparkle’s proven know-how on global IP transit service.”
Now, Talotta has told Capacity: “We are very happy to be the first international service provider to partner with TIC of Iran.”
He said: “Iran is a very promising market. Now it is a reality. Iran will become a regional hub serving the neighbouring countries and we are very proud to be the first international provider there.”
But business is “complex”, he added in the Capacity interview, with “many variables”. But “they are installing our equipment in Tehran right now”, he said, and is aiming for service “by the end of October”.The interview should be available online on Monday.
Earlier this year Iran’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT) said it wants to split TIC into three parts, which will operate independently: the International Data Transit Company; Research and Development Company; and Infrastructure Development Company. All three would be overseen by a new entity.
The MICT said it wanted to increase capacity in the country to 30Tbps by March 2021.
