go type semi private industry telecommunications founded 2005 headquarters tehran iran key people alireza ghalambor dezfouli chairman and ceo products landline and mobile phone internet services broadband and fixed line internet services digital television and network services and global internet protocol backbone network website www.irancell.ir irancell persian is one of the four ir mci taliya irancell and rightel mobile phone network operators of iran . 1 it is 49 % owned by the south africa based mtn group . in august 2014 mtn irancell officially got the license for 3g and higher generations from iran s communications regulatory authority cra and started its network for wcdma in band 2100 . 1 2 contents 1 history 2 shareholders 3 controversy 3.1 sanctions 3.2 sunni insult and boycott 3.3 mobile web pricing 3.4 subscribers privacy leak 4 references 5 external links history edit on december 3 2014 irancell officially launched iran s first 4g lte network in nine cities . 3 the license was granted as on a national basis and includes the overall geographical coverage of iran . within a short time after being granted the license irancell was able to complete the network operation and roll out and started test launch of its network on 28 august 2006 some 9 months after being granted the license . irancell network was officially launched on 21 october 2006 in tehran tabriz and mashhad . the network provides the subscribers with an advanced generation of gsm system to enable them get use of edge 2.75 g . shareholders edit mtn irancell has two shareholders iran electronic development company iedc 51 % and mtn international mauritius limited 49 % . iedc currently has two key shareholders 4 mostazafan foundation a bonyad iran electronics industries iei known as sairan company with military contracts controversy edit sanctions edit according to reuters the company was able to obtain banned u.s. technologies despite imposed sanctions against iran . 5 sunni insult and boycott edit in july 2013 iran s sunni community which is the second largest religious group accused the company of insulting caliph umar after he was called deceived by the devil in a competition s question . people in predominantly sunni provinces kurdistan and sistan & baluchestan boycotted the company and a sunni mp voiced their anger in a parliamentary session . irancell later apologised for the unintentional mistake . 6 mobile web pricing edit after irancell doubled the prices for its mobile web services in december 2014 some angered users started protesting the company via the social media . subscribers decided to hold a boycott on the company and remove their sim cards altogether on december 31 2014 . 7 subscribers privacy leak edit irancell has been criticized for its privacy policy . in july 2016 a robot known as mtn bot leaked data on personal information of millions of irancell subscribers on telegram . irancell did not pledge responsibility for the leakage and accused its rivals for the turmoil caused by the news . on 3 july 2016 minister of communications mahmoud vaezi told that the data was leaked by an intelligence agent when irancell handed subscribers data to an anonymous intelligence agency in iran upon an inquiry in 2014 . 8 references edit a b mtn irancell preparing for 3g launch . telegeography . 2014 08 07 . retrieved 2014 12 07 . mtn irancell awarded 3g and higher generations license agreement . ictna.ir . 2014 08 06 . retrieved 2014 12 07 . mtn irancell 4g network launched commercially . ictna.ir . 2014 12 03 . retrieved 2012 12 07 . subordinate companies iran electronic development company . sina electronic development holding company . archived from the original on 2012 10 12 . retrieved 2012 06 14 . stecklow steve ; george marcus ; westall sylvia june 4 2012 . michael williams ed . exclusive iranian cell phone carrier obtained banned u.s. tech . reuters . retrieved november 21 2014 . iran mobile company indicted for insulting sunnis . bbc world service . 22 july 2013 . retrieved 29 december 2014 . subscribers turning irancell off . shargh in persian 2198 . 30 december 2014 . p. 15 . irancell data leak raises security questions . financial tribune . 18 july 2016 . retrieved 19 august 2016 . external links edit official website v t e iran telecommunication companies gsm mobile telecommunication company of iran mtn irancell rightel taliya v t e internet in iran dial up & adsl isps tci asiatech shatel pars online shahrad network sepanta afranet asre telecom datak telecom saba net hiweb pishgaman iranfcp wimax isps mobin net mtn irancell datak telecom iranfcp infrastructure . ir . co.ir . ac.ir hosting companies sepanta asiatech parsdata shahrad network afranet iranfcp related subjects internet communications in iran blogging in iran internet censorship in iran internet in a suitcase internet and distance education in iran iran cyber police cyberwarfare in iran retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title mtn irancell & oldid 741590070 categories companies of iranmobile phone companies of iranprivately held companies of iranhidden categories cs1 persian language sources fa articles containing persian language textofficial website different in wikidata and wikipediause dmy dates from december 2011 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 28 september 2016 at 13 06 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view