Confidential documents leaked to the Iranian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology revealed that it had signed contracts for projects and plans with Chinese contractors, with financing amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Documents recently published by Iranian tech activist Nariman Gharib include information on 10 current projects for the ministry.
The leaked documents also include information about projects in the field of developing telephone networks, developing the communications infrastructure for the fourth and fifth generations of mobile phone networks, 3 space projects, and others in the field of manufacturing smart phones and messaging applications.
The leaked information shows that Iran has concluded contracts with Chinese contractors and Chinese trading companies on 3 executive projects related to the development of infrastructure and communications in the country.
Many errors in translation are evident in these undated documents, as well as the use of Persian and English terms due to the failure of the translators, and therefore it is not possible to determine the time period for the implementation of these projects in Iran.
According to the documents, Tehran has set a budget for Hajja of $220 million for one of the projects mentioned in the leaked document, which is related to the development and modernization of the IP and telephone network infrastructure, including the development of 10 million FTTX ports.
The aforementioned project is considered one of the projects in which contractors from China participate in its implementation.
Chinese contractors are also implementing two other projects related to the development of the fourth and fifth generation network for Iranian mobile operators.
Details of the documents indicate that it is planned to establish 3,000 sites for the fifth generation, and 6,000 sites for the fourth generation, with an annual budget of 325 and 250 million dollars, respectively.
Noting that, following the tightening of international sanctions against Iran, some prominent European companies that were working on developing the communications infrastructure in Iran decided to leave their work in the country.
Currently, the Chinese are the sole supplier of various equipment and communication technologies to Iran.
International institutions have repeatedly warned of the danger of this cooperation, which in most cases leads to more restrictions against Iranian citizens.
