Iran-Iraq Data Traffic Grows 16-Fold during Arbaeen: Minister


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The mobile data traffic between Iran and Iraq showed a 16-fold increase during the mourning ceremony of Arbaeen, Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi said on Tuesday.

A committee was established by the Iranian Ministry of Communication to manage and organize the mobile data traffic during Arbaeen mourning ceremonies when millions of Shiite pilgrims traveled to Karbala, Iraq, said the Iranian official.

Vaezi appreciated the efforts made by the committee to facilitate communication for pilgrims and provide 24-hour support for the communication system.

The average data traffic between the neighboring countries is normally 150 thousand minutes a day, but this figure rose to 2.5 million minutes in these days.

During the mourning days, the duration of phone calls between the two countries was 24 million minutes, including 15.8 million minutes from Iran and 8.2 million from Iraq.

More than 20 million pilgrims from all over the world gathered in Karbala to attend the mourning ceremonies marking Arbaeen, the 40th day after the anniversary of martyrdom of Imam Hussein (AS), the son of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

According to the official figures, around 1.5 million pilgrims travelled to Iraq from Iran alone.