Nasser Ali Saadat, Interview with e-planet, a Cyberday. 28 May 2000

Interview with Nasser Saadat, Chairman,
Neda Rayaneh, Iranian Internet Service Provider.

Question: How did Neda.net get started?

Mr. Sa'aadat: We started the company around seven years ago with the goal of providing information to the people. In those days there were only five employees, now we have more than one hundred people working here. We have one thousand dial-up lines for providing service and more than four thousand end-users. We also have around two thousand companies who use our services to put information on the Internet. But the important fact is the rate of growth. One year ago we had just three new users per day and now the rate is 15 new users per day. We forecast that by the end of the year we will have around 20-thousand users. It�s also important to note that our site gets 15-million visits per month and I think a large number of those users are from outside Iran. They are concerned about the information we provide them.

Question: How has e-commerce grown in Iran?

Mr. Sa'aadat: E-commerce is a new matter all around the world. It will take time (before it becomes more widespread) not because of the technology but because of the culture of the people using this new technology. Before e-commerce can become popular in the country the people need to have a culture of using credit cards, debit cards instead of real cash money. You also need the networks between the banks, networks between the companies, you need the data networks and then, if you have all of this infrastructure, you can sell your products to anybody on the Internet. Right now e-commerce (in Iran) is used more for buying things from abroad and only a small amount of buying and selling is done within the country. But it is going to evolve; I�m sure than in less than two years we will have local e-commerce too.

Question: What about restrictions on access to the Internet?

Mr. Sa'aadat: Actually there is no restriction on access to the Internet. Anybody can come and pay the subscription fee and they can have access to the dial up line to the Internet.

Question: But what about access to content on the Web?

Mr. Sa'aadat: If we are talking about censorship, I don�t think it�s censorship I think it�s a protection. If we look at the Internet all around the world you see that everywhere - often in the west - they�re concerned about children�s access to pornographic sites. So in this country we are using a filtering system to filter this sort of thing. But again, I think this is not a restriction it is a protection of the people against things that are against the rules, our Islamic rules, our country rules. Yes, we have filtering system for violence, for pornographic stuff for example but we don�t have any restriction on reading political news, going everywhere, buying something.

Question: What affect is the Internet having on the country right now?

Mr. Sa'aadat: We cannot say it is having much of an effect right now because there are not that many subscribers around the country. In the entire country we have maybe less than 100-thousand within a population of 60-70 million so we cannot say the Internet is having a big effect on the normal life of people. Also, we don�t have a very integrated network between the ISP companies. When Neda.net started we were the first and only company providing service but today there are more than 72 ISPs. But most of these ISPs, they don�t have connections between themselves. They use Internet connections to reach each other. So, for example, if I send you an e-mail and you subscribe to another ISP, my e-mail must go outside and come back to you because we are not connected. But we are working on that and I think that in less than a year we will have a good network inside the country.

As for me, as a manager of this kind of company, (the Internet) has a lot of affect. For example, when I sign a contract between Neda and another company, whether its in Europe, the States of in the Middle East, I do all of my work through the Internet. I visit their site, they come and visit my site, we see each other (during an) Internet meeting. Everything, everything has been done on the Internet, so it has a big effect on my business life. And not just business. I have some hobbies. For example, I collect calculators so I find my stuff on the Internet. I buy some of them from outside the country.

Question: What�s the future for Neda.net?

Mr. Sa'aadat: We are looking to have a portal site on the Internet so you can find anything. What we are concerned about it is (providing) information about our country, about the culture, about business, arts, everything from inside the country.

Right now we have most of the Iranian newspapers and publications on (the site) in Farsi and in English. We have Iranian arts; we have Iranian culture. For example, about 20 days back was our New Year (Norooz) and we put a lot of information on the website explaining about Norooz and our tradition. In one word I can say A to Z we are looking to provide information.


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