TEHRAN – The 16th international conference on information and knowledge technology (IKT 2025) is scheduled to be held in Tehran from December 23 to 25.

The Iranian Association of Information and Communication Technology will hold the conference at Amirkabir University of Technology, IRNA reported.

The conference aims to develop knowledge and information technology, share expertise, and the latest scientific findings, and lay the basis for decision-making in the information and communication technology sector.

It will be centered around Theoretical Foundations, Algorithms, and Innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Applications, and Machine Learning, which covers topics such as natural language models, large language Models (LLM), deep learning, big data analysis, generative AI, business intelligence, and decision support systems.

Digital Transformation in Industry, Economy, Society, and Family; Smart Banking and Financial Systems; Cryptocurrencies, Education in the Age of AI; Ethical and Legal Issues; Privacy Protection; Data-Driven Decision-Making; and Digital Governance and Justice-based and Sustainable Development are among other topics of the conference.

It will also focus on Information Transmission and Processing Technologies and Cybersecurity, including topics such as network virtualization, 6G networks, edge computing and fog computing, real-time data analysis, quantum processing and cryptography, as well as self-healing software.

The event will also host scientific meetings, lectures, specialized roundtables, educational workshops, competitions, and an award ceremony.

On the sidelines of the conference, innovative, knowledge-based products will be displayed.

Status of ICT in Iran

The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology is the highest authority in the field of ICT in the country. All activities related to the information and communication technology industry are directly related to the ministry.

The government pays special attention to plans and policies in this sector in order to maximize the use of ICT to facilitate people’s lives.

The successful designing, building, and launching of a satellite shows the growth of the national technology and scientific power of a country.

Space technology has been considered a tool to expand prosperity, peace, scientific-cultural development, and economic progress in human societies.

Different nations of the world exploit this technology in some way based on their capacity, capabilities, and efforts.

Currently, 13 universities and a research institute affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology are offering aerospace majors, thus Iran has a high capability in training specialists and experts in the aerospace sector and is a leading country in the region.

Access to telecommunication services in rural areas of the country had improved over the period as the overall number of villages with access to communication services rose to 52,182, around 93 percent of all villages, while 47,837 villages had access to home landline services.

Moreover, the number of Iranian mobile users reached nearly 135.890 million, according to the CRA, which put the mobile phone penetration rate in the country at 161.67 percent.

The figures showed, however, that fixed broadband adoption in Iran had stalled at 14 percent, with nearly 11.921 million customers having access to the Internet via those services.

This statistic shows that fixed broadband internet has grown by less than 2 percent compared to last year, and mobile internet has experienced a growth of 10 percent. However, it can be said that the speed of mobile internet expansion is 5 times the speed of fixed internet.

MT/MG