Iran’s Communications and Information Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi took to his Twitter page on Thursday to announce the launch while sending a picture that showed the system was operating smoothly on a mobile phone, Press TV reported.

Azari-Jahromi said the 5G mast is a second of five sites providing superfast Internet that are planned to come on line in Tehran until late September.

A first 5G antenna had been launched in late July in downtown Tehran by the Iranian mobile operator, MTN Irancell, which is Iran’s second mobile operator.

The company and first operator MCI are planning to expand 5G coverage as they eye a massive growth in revenues from online services in the upcoming years.

The fourth generation of mobile data, known as 4G, had reached thousands of cities and villages across Iran. The current penetration rate for the service in the country is more than 60 percent, on par with many developed and developing countries around the world.

Increased Internet access has caused a major boom for online businesses in Iran while it has enabled the government to provide remote and low-cost services, including those desperately needed by the Iranians during the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic in the country.

The government is intent on using high-speed Internet services for schools across Iran.

Referring to the reasons behind Iran’s entry into the G5 technology, Sattar Hashemi said, “ICT’s Research Center is where the first 5th generation communications site and all stakeholders in this field can participate in the research and development (R&D) of this project,” Mehr News Agency (MNA) reported on July 22.

Noting that in the phase of a pilot test of the mobile project, a speed of 1.5 gigabits per second was successfully tested, he added, “5G also has a significant improvement over 4G in terms of data transmission delay, so that we could reduce the delay by 5 to 6 milliseconds in this test.”

Hashemi further said that targeting the speed of data exchange in 5G network in the world is theoretically one to 20 gigabits. “This speed is proportional to the investment and other components but the average considered for it (5G) will be a speed between 1.5 and 2 gigabits.”

He reiterated that the test trial in ICT Research Center would enable all stakeholders of the ethnology in Iran, including other mobile operators, to contribute to the project.

Currently, the average speed of the Internet in 4G communications is estimated at about 20 Mbps per user, the Deputy ICT minister added.

The Chinese telecoms giant’s UK spokesman Ed Brewster called the move “disappointing,” adding: “Regrettably, our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about US trade policy, not security,” AFP reported.

Boris Johnson’s government on Tuesday banned the purchase of new Huawei equipment by UK telecoms operators from the end of 2020. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said the legislation would ensure the complete removal of all Huawei kit from 5G networks by 2027, independent.co.uk reported.

China experts have warned about the huge impact on diplomatic and economic relations with Beijing, predicting “pretty severe turbulence.”

Chair of the Commons Defence Committee Tobias Ellwood said, “We are heading into a Cold War; there’s no doubt about it.”

Also BT, Britain’s biggest mobile and fixed-line operator, said it would analyze the details of the ban on its supplier Huawei in terms of the costs and impact on its business, Reuters reported.

“We note the government’s announcement today relating to the use of Huawei equipment in the UK,” a spokesman said.

“The security and resilience of our networks is an absolute priority for BT. While we have prepared for a range of scenarios, we need to further analyze the details and implications of this decision before taking a view of potential costs and impacts.”

The UK’s decision has delighted US President Donald Trump by signaling that the world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker is no longer welcome in the West.

The United States has pushed Johnson to reverse his January decision to grant Huawei a limited role in 5G, while London has been dismayed by a crackdown in Hong Kong and the perception China did not tell the whole truth over the coronavirus.

Now, as Britain prepares to cast off from the European Union, Johnson will risk the ire of the world’s second-largest economy by ordering a purge of Huawei equipment which the United States says could be used to spy on the West.

Johnson chaired a meeting of Britain’s National Security Council (NSC) on Tuesday morning to discuss Huawei.

The immediate excuse for the about-turn in policy is the impact of new US sanctions on chip technology, which London says affects Huawei’s ability to remain a reliable supplier.

“Obviously the context has changed slightly with some of the sanctions that the US has brought in,” Environment Secretary George Eustice told Sky News when asked about Huawei.

In what some have compared to the Cold War antagonism with the Soviet Union, the United States is worried that 5G dominance is a milestone towards Chinese technological supremacy that could define the geopolitics of the 21st century.

With faster data and increased capacity, 5G will become the nervous system of the future economy – carrying data on everything from global financial flows to critical infrastructures such as energy, defense, and transport.

After Australia first recognized the destructive power of 5G if hijacked by a hostile state, the West has become steadily more worried about Huawei.

UK Telecoms firms already had to cap Huawei’s role in 5G at 35 percent by 2023. Reducing it to zero over another two to four years is now being discussed, though going too fast could disrupt services and prove costly.

The West is trying to create a group of rivals to Huawei to build 5G networks. Other large-scale telecoms equipment suppliers are Sweden’s Ericsson (ERICb.ST) and Finland’s Nokia (NOKIA.HE).