Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) has announced plans to reintegrate its 30 regional fixed line operators, as well as cellular division Mobile Communication Company of Iran (MCI). The move is designed to simplify the group’s structure, improve decision-making processes and reduce the size of affiliate companies in order to improve efficiency and cut costs. A report from TechRasa says the integration work will begin in the current Iranian calendar year 1395 (year to 20 March 2017) and will be completed in 1396. MCI will be merged into TCI in 1397/98 (by March 2020) and by the year 1400 (to March 2022) all fixed and mobile services will be offered under the unified brand ‘Pishro Digital’, with customers provided with a single bill and all back-office and sales functions centralised.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, TCI is 50% owned by local consortium Etemad-e-Mobin, which is partly affiliated via member companies to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). A 20% stake in TCI is retained by the government, with 20% held in trust for poor Iranian families and 5% owned by employees. The remaining 5% stake was sold in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Tehran stock exchange in August 2008. Its regional subsidiaries had around 29.8 million fixed line customers between them at end-2015, while MCI is the country’s largest cellular operator with an estimated 64.2 million users at the same date.