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Yes, I heard something about that bus crash, nasty that.
Driving in Britain is becoming more of an art too - more and more people are becoming violent, and 'road rage' seems to be getting more common! People still do let people out, and I hope that continues. Driving in cities is, well, a challenge to say the least, with people's driving, one way systems, pedestrianised areas, and speed camera all conspiring to make it a nightmare!!
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Posted: 2004-06-26 09:48:18
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Hey All
Wonder if you can help me a bit.... I am a poor MBA student told to research the mobile phone market in Iran
I had a few questions (actually quite a few). I wonder if anyone can answer.
1. How expensive are the mobile phones in Iran? Say a typical entry level phone? Do you get the phone as part of the connection package as in Europe or do you buy it seperately?
2. I know that it is extremely hard to get a mobile phone connection in Iran right now. But do people own mobile phones even without having a connection (doesn't make a lot of sense actually)?
3. Your top 3 complaints from the national operator (e.g, pricey, patchy reception etc.)?
4. Samsung seems to be the most popular phone in Iran. Does anyone know its marketshare? And what are the other popular companies? Nokia, LG, Sony Ericsson ?
5. What is the population of Tehran?
6. How is the mobile coverage outside Tehran?
I guess for the time being, this will do
Will be really grateful if anyone can answer.
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Posted: 2004-07-01 11:58:44
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5. 14 million
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Posted: 2004-07-01 15:34:47
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interesting!
i'll give it a try:
1. first, right now there is only one public provider and that is the main telecom ministry. that is, not just mobile, all telecomm. and they are not having any package deal whatsoever. we have to beg them to give us a line!! as i said earlier, in the street you can buy a SIM card or a line to be more precise at about $1100....sometimes they give a mobile with it as well...of course a simple one. here samsung is very popular. you can however register for a line with telecom, at about half the price, $500 but you have to wait a looooong time for it!! usually 6 months!! it has become a good business for many! high interest rate ey?! oh and about the phones, they're pretty cheap...actually much cheaper than other countries...say for example a 6600 is about $365 . if you have any other model in mind tell me and i'll find out...
2. it's not hard, in fact you can just give them a call and they'll drop it in your house the same day/night!! it's just too damn expensive! and yes, it sure wouldn't make any sense to have a mobile without a line!! who said we do?? i donno where you got that from!
3. hmm...first, service....like GPRS is sooo expensive i can't even think about it...sms is still buggy...can you believe it? i don't even have an sms service right now!! cuz since they realised it was too buggy, they didn't include it in the new sim cards! and mine is new! reception is not so bad, except the busy parts of tehran...and during peak hours. oh...and we don't have voice mail yet. one other thing is that the mobile code is based on the location...like one city is 0912, another is 0913, and so on.
4. ok so you knew! i don't have a number! but i can say more than 50%. next comes nokia, then siemens, not so much SE and LG...though LG is very popular in iran, but in other products. there is another brand i never heard of, "pantech" which is making a lot of noise these days too. motorola is very rare here...except the latest one, which i have seen a few on the street.
5. as jaymo said, about 14 million.
6. as i said, i have no had much trouble with coverage...i have been to a few cities since three months ago that i came to iran, including a remote island, and i have had no problems with the coverage...it's similar to Kuala lumpur i can say.
amm...anything else?
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Posted: 2004-07-01 17:22:08
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Thanks a lot for the reply. You made my life a lot easier
Just a couple of questions actually.... This $1100 figure that you quote, is it official channel or unofficial one? (But even $500 is really expensive). I guess the prices will go down a bit from next January when the new operator, TurkCell starts operating.
Also, the price of the phone... is it with warranty or without? As in do you get a company warranty like in Europe or is it gray market?
The reason I asked about the coverage outside Tehran was so that I can get an idea about how big the market is.
Also I was reading that recently the national operator signed up around 6m people for a mobile connection within 10 days and everyone of those 6m will get a connection by the end of 2005. Is that true?
And one somewhat abstract question... is there any reason for Samsung to be popular besides the Farsi support? Are there any other features which make people go for Samsung rather than say LG, which has almost the same features and similar looking phones? And are Farsi phones popular in a particular age group or are they popular with everyone (even young people)? Iran afterall is a very young country.
P.S- Is there any IRC channel where I can actually chat with some Iranians?
[ This Message was edited by: arbitrabbit on 2004-07-01 18:42 ]
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Posted: 2004-07-01 19:17:29
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wow! didn't know about turkcell! some competition would be great!!
i hope some foreign ISP could come in as well! they are charging about $90 a month for a miserable 256kbps DSL!!
anyways, the figure is of course unofficial. but the rate is more or less the same everywhere...the difference is some places give you a cell as well.
the phone price is usually with warranty from official representatives of nokia or samsung, but gray market is also very very active! the difference compared to malaysia is that they WILL let you know that you are buying a phone w/out official warranty. no cheating there.
mostly ppl will go for the official warranty.
true..many ppl signed up for the new SIM cards, including myself! and...end of 2005 is the max time they have to wait...few batches will get their SIM cards earlier...like i 'll get mine next month! after about 4 months of waiting.
i am new to iran so i donno how samsung got popular at the first place, but mostly i say is VERY Strong advertisements carried by them and i think it can be somewhat political as well...
as iran and korea have pretty good ties...we have loads of korean cars in iran, Kia, Hyundai, Daewoo ...err...what else...?!?!
you compared samsung with LG?! how can you? i don't think LG is good, experience has proven that fact.
farsi phone are popular with the elderly i can say! they are not keen to learn englsh!
almost everyone i know uses english...but again, majority of iranians prefer farsi, why not!
about IRC....i don't chat actively anymore !! so i can't help you...
there are a few forums you can go...you can try chatting in english and see if they'll respond:
forum.persiantools.com
www.majidonline.com
www.barnamenevis.com
these are computer related forums, but they do have an open-discussion secition where you can talk about anything.
oh and..
www.psforums.org which is all about mobiles!
good luck!
oh...where are you from and ....what made you take this as your project?
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Posted: 2004-07-02 09:43:53
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Hey Milad
Thanks a ton for the information again. So effectively, this $500, which is the official figure I assume, doesn't include phones. Wow, you guys sure are paying a lot
Anyway, things should be a little better when turkcell comes but according to the contract that they signed, their prices can't be below MCI's prices by more than 20%, so things won't get very cheap (This is a weird cluase actually, aimed solely at protecting MCI's monopoly)
Hey, btw are phones which give you eminders about Namaaz times, store texts of Koran etc. popular as well, maybe among the elderly? As far as youth ae concerened, I am sure you guys won't like such phones. I used to have an Iranian friend in engineering school, Baghram Dastmalchi. That guy was as western as they come.... as in traditional in thinking and western in outlook. A big time Pink Floyd fan
In fact he was the guy who changed my impression about Iran.
As far as where I am from, I am originally from India, right now doing my MBA in France. The reason I took this project is because I believe that along with India and China, the next phase of mobile telephony growth is going to come from middle east... I mean where else will you find people with enough money to buy the phones but Governments which just can't provide enough connections!!!! I was actually studying that why does Samsung kick ass in Iran and LG sucks big time (in mobile market) and what can LG do differently to gain some market share. So if you have a wish list of what you want from LG, go ahead
Thanks a lot for the forum links btw, will try those if I can figure out how to register
[ This Message was edited by: arbitrabbit on 2004-07-02 10:12 ]
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Posted: 2004-07-02 11:03:01
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oright then!
now i get it!
those religious softwares are not on many people's phones!!
i personally have quran on my phone...well, it's nice to have something to read (in the appropriate moment, of course! not as a story book!). you can say i have strong faith! but many ppl in my age are into other stuff, like your friend! i like to keep a little path.
i don't think that religious softwares are a good market to invest on, right now....maybe when the phones are more common and cheaper so majority can have it.
it's interesting that they put such a limitation on turkcell...they still can be better off by providing better services.
Unless LG can come up with a SUPER phone, i would never buy it!! i will even use a nokia, but not an LG!
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Posted: 2004-07-02 15:04:35
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arbitrabbit:
darvish.iranirc.net
www.iranirc.com
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Posted: 2004-07-05 01:59:55
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Thanks a lot guys for your replies.... I have enough ammo now to do something about the LG stuff.... too bad that Milad will still not buy it
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Posted: 2004-07-06 00:20:36
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