Rollout of Iran’s national intranet to begin this month

The government of Iran has announced that it will begin deployment of the first phase of its closed national internet network later this month. Communications and IT minister Reza Taghipour has told the ISNA news agency that the project will be completed by 2013, offering a nationwide information system to run alongside the World Wide Web. The government is keen to introduce a closed internet to ensure that all content can be closely monitored. Taghipour added that the country will increase its internet bandwidth from 520Gbps to 2Tbps by the end of its fifth five-year development plan in March 2016.