The first commercial Internet service provider in Iran was the NedaRayaneh Institute (NRI) ( http://www.neda.net.ir ), a non-profitcompany affiliated with Tehran municipality, which started a BBS in early1994 and Internet access in February 1995 via two 9.6 Kbps SLIP leasedlines. One of these lines connected its LAN to IPM, and the other used asatellite link to connect to a Canadian ISP, Cadvision. NRI is thelargest ISP in Iran, hosting an extensive array of business and news webpages, all of which are mirrored in California by the Global PublishingGroup ( http://www.gpg.com ).
NRI's basic offerings include extensive domestic news and informationservices and email. A basic email and BBS (``Neda-1") account costs IR300,000 ($100) per year; access to the Internet is a premium service,open only to Neda-1 subscribers, that costs an additional IR 50,000($16.67) per 200 kb of traffic.
NRI also maintains the Tehran ``Yellow Pages" and commercial and privatetelephone directories, as well as city information and an interactive mapof Tehran. The company hosts numerous corporate web pages, for which itprovides the design expertise, as well as a full version (Persianhypertext and graphics) of the Tehran daily newspaper Hamshahri. NRIformerly offered domain name registration and hosting services for a flatfee of IR 2,000,000 ($667), but had to discontinue the service due tothe congestion this caused the network. The company still offers webhosting services on its intranet (i.e., with no Internet link). Allservices are available in English and Persian.
In early August 1995, all 200 of NRI's dial-up lines were disconnected byTCI, ostensibly due to the misuse of the network by NRI subscriberslooking for mates via the Internet, but more likely related to attemptsby the Ministry of Post, Telegraph, and Telephone to stifle competitionto its own companies, including DCI. The connections were restored withina week, but NRI was required to post a message warning subscribers torefrain from inappropriate activities. Only 16 of the dial-up lines wereinitially allocated for Internet access, but these have been expanded to100. NRI also has a full-time connection to IranPac.
In early 1996, the Central Library of the Foundation of the Holy Shrineof Imam Reza, Astan Qods Razavi , announced that it would join theInternet in the near future, apparently via NRI.