Since 1991, Iran's satellite connection to the international network hasbeen established though three satellite earth stations, six antennas andapproximately 1000 channels.
Iran's largest satellite station is the Inmarsat land earth station atBoumehen, near Tehran, operating in A and C bands which routes callsbeamed from mobiles via the Indian Ocean satellite to and fromterrestrial telephone networks. The station was inaugurated by PresidentRafsanjani on May 20, 1995, and was billed as the largest satellitetelecommunication center in the Middle East at the time. It is located 35kilometers northeast of Tehran, and serves 1,250 telephone channels andinternational telex lines. The satellite center enables a range ofdomestic communication and signal dispatch as well as extended access todirect telephone and telex links with sea bound vessels in Europe, Africaand Asia.
Another large station is in Astarabad, Hamedan.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed on November 24, 1998 betweenInmarsat (the global mobile satellite communications operator) andThuraya (the Middle Eastern organization building a regional satellitesystem due for launch in 2000) provides a framework for discussing thedevelopment of Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) in the Middle East.According to this MOU it is forecast that Inmarsat Band M services willalso be provided in the Bumehen station.