The number of high capacity and low capacity local exchanges has been growing at a tremendous rate. This has resulted in considerable growth in the number of local exchange communication channels which has made it possible to provide telecommunication services in some of the farthest reaches of Iran.
In 1995, there were only 122 high capacity and 244 low capacity exchanges while these numbers rose to 1,051 and 1,666 respectively by 1997.
On the other hand, in 1979, there were only about 5,400 local exchange channels in Iran. This number rose to 11,429 in 1986 and to 31,442 in 1991 and is expected to exceed 100,000 by the year 2000.