The outcome left by the revocation of the third license was the state majority-owned (75%) Telecommunications Company of Iran having 21.3 million customers or 74.7% of the market, estimated last by Mobile World.

While there is a seond carrier license through Irancell their subscriber base was approximately 6 million as of the end of 2008.

What is worse is TCI owns the vast majority of the country's land line operations.

• Before the announcement, security forces, including members of the pro-government Basij militia, deployed in large numbers to prevent street protests, witnesses said.
• Cell phone service appears to have been cut in Iran's capital after a disputed election that the government said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won.
• Iran has already blocked the use of text messages and most Web sites affiliated with Ahmadinejad's top opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, were blocked. Other Web sites including Facebook were not accessible but it was unclear if they were blocked.

This means with a flip of a switch the Department of Telecommunications Ministry can turn off all communications and infact this is exactly what happened immediately following the election results.

"Voice call monitoring is required by the courts to listen to phone calls coming from a particular phone number, the telecommunication systems have an ability to do that," Roome said.

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) not to be mistaken with simply Nokia.

A spokesman for NSN said the servers were sold for "lawful intercept functionality," a technical term used by the cell-phone industry to refer to law enforcement's ability to tap phones, read e-mails and surveil electronic data on communications networks.

William Daly, a former CIA signal-intelligence officer for the agency's Office of Science and Technology who retired in 2000, said the monitoring center in Iran will be used to "monitor dissidents and those ayatollahs who oppose the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei]."

He explained that NSN had delivered a network expansion with voice call monitoring centre to Iranian telecommunication operator TCI in the second half of 2008.

Source Citation:

"Cell phone service down after disputed Iran vote." The America's Intelligence Wire (June 13, 2009).

"Fed contractor, cell phone maker sold spy system to Iran." Washington Times (Washington, D.C.) (April 13, 2009).

"Fed contractor, cell phone maker sold spy system to Iran." Washington Times (Washington, D.C.) (April 13, 2009).

Iran can monitor calls with our technology: Nokia Siemens. AFP