Over 80 percent of sms in Iran sent with Persian fonts: telecommunication official

“According to surveys carried out, most mobile phone users send their sms with Persian fonts,” the TCI spokesman Davoud Zareian told Mobna news agency.
“With the new lower tariff for Persian sms, sending and receiving sms with Persian fonts has increased by 50 percent.” he added
He said that MCI (the state owned and the first nation wide mobile operator) subscribers transmit 50 million sms daily.
Last February the government set tariffs for sms with Persian and non Persian fonts to 890 and 222 rials (less than a cent to two cents) respectively, effective from June 21, 2008.
Taking into account that sms with non Persian fonts supports 160 characters and with Persian fonts only 70, MCI in cooperation with Sharif University have developed software to zip the Persian sms to 200 characters.
The software may be downloaded from the TCI’s website.

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