Since the 1970's Iran has considered establishing a GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) communications satellite network. After several abortive attempts, Iran reached a tentative agreement in 1993 to purchase a pair of western satellites for its Zohreh (Venus) system. France and Italy are said to be involved in manufacturing of the satellites. However, the Chinese Space Agency will be the launch partner.
Zohreh will be used to provide telecommunications facilities to remote areas in Iran; to support terrestrial telephony; to provide military and data communications; and to develop Iran's broadcasting capacity. With spacecraft stationed at 26 degrees E and 34 degrees E, the Zohreh system will provide both L-band (INMARSAT-compatible) and Ku-band (14 transponders) links. The 1,800 watts, 1,850-kg spacecraft are to be furnished by Alcatel Espace and Aerospatiale with design lifetimes of 10 years. In the meantime, Iran is leasing Ku-band capacity on INTELSA spacecraft.
The telecommunications capacity supported by these two satellites is expected to be 12,000 telephone and 4 television channels. The provisions considered for these satellites include five land stations with antennas between 1.5 to 5.5 meters in diameter, 135 primary and secondary stations, 27 zonal stations, 31 community stations and 1,374 rural stations.
Head of Iran Telecommunications Research Center (ITRC) announced on March 6, 1999 that a small low earth orbiting (LEO) communication satellite, called Mesbah, is currently under design by his center, in cooperation with the Iranian Research Center for Science and Technology (IROST), and the Iranian Remote Sensing Center (IRSC). This will be a test light-weight satellite operating in the radio amateur band.
Iran is expected to have domestic launch capability for low earth orbiting satellites by 2001, as part of the Shahab-4 rocket system under development by research divisions the Defense Industries Organization.