Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
calls are so cheap that most mid-range and better hotels, bus stations and airport terminals
have at least one public telephone permitting free local calls.
International calls are also relatively cheap (US$0.20) per minute to most countries.
These rates can be had at small, private telephone offices (usually open from about
7.30am until 9pm), where you give the number to the front desk and wait for a booth to
become available. You'll normally be charged a minimum of three minutes. In many cities
international calling cards are available from newsstands, grocery stores and
coffeenets
.
You can't make reverse-charge (collect) calls to or from Iran.
Mobile Phones
Iran has several mobile-phone networks but only two, government-owned MCI and
MTN
Irancell
(
www.irancell.ir
)
, which is owned by the Iranian government and South African
group MTN, enjoy wide coverage. Of these, Irancell has pay-as-you-go SIM cards that
non-residents can buy for US$4 and a copy of your passport (most people buy and get the
SIM activated on arrival at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran). Top up your
credit at vendors displaying yellow and blue MTN signs, who always charge about 10%
more than the card's face value. Full pricing is available in English on Irancell's website,
but expect to pay US$0.05 to US$0.07 per minute for local calls, and about US$0.50 per
minute international. SMS messages cost IR100 locally and IR1500 for international.
Irancell SIMs allow GPRS data transfer after a free registration process, and WiMAX
has been rolled out in several cities. In our experience the GPRS service was unreliable
and download speeds slow.
Time
Compared with some of their Middle East neighbours, Iranians are fairly punctual and
will expect you to be the same.
Time throughout Iran is 3½ hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), so noon in
Tehran is 3.30am in New York; 8.30am in London; 10.30am in Turkey; 11.30am in
Azerbaijan; noon in Afghanistan; 1.30pm in Pakistan and Turkmenistan (note this when
preparing to cross borders); and 6.30pm in Sydney.
Daylight saving is observed between No Ruz (usually 21 March) and September 22.
