Feb 19, 2013

A new Iranian 3G mobile Internet operator that has brought video-calling to Iran is flouting a fatwa issued by four grand ayatollahs.

Rightel, Iran’s third mobile-phone operator, provides Iranians with their first ever 3G Internet services, allowing customers to use both video-call and multi-media messaging functions. The firm, which sponsored Iran’s recent International Fajr Film Festival, has a slick new website and accepts customers who register with their national card details. Rightel offers pay-and-go, contact and data-card packages.

Word of the service has spread fast among young Iranians who are buying SIM cards en masse. “The Internet is so fast,” says one new customer in Tehran, “But it uses a lot of battery, so when you‘re not browsing you need to turn off the 3G function.”

“This is great. I am studying in Tehran and it is a great way to keep in touch with my mum in Shiraz,” says a student in Tehran, “It will be like I am home for her.”

But the-video service function has piqued the ire of both Iran’s clerical establishment and its political hard-liners. Four grand ayatollahs — Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, Hossein Nouri Hamedani , Jafar Sohbhani and Seyyed Sajjad Alavi Gorgani — have issued fatwas banning Rightel.