The sandbox of the Ministry of Communications was launched

The Sandbox of the Ministry of Communications intends to solve the regulatory problems of these businesses by accepting businesses related to emerging technologies and businesses related to the scope of this ministry’s tasks

This sandbox provides an opportunity for businesses to be exempted from some laws for up to one year, so that the legal gaps in their activities are identified.

According to Iran digital economy annotation, the Information Technology Organization announced the launch of the test environment (sandbox) in the field of communication and information technology during a ceremony. The secretariat of this sandbox is in this organization, but it includes all areas related to the Ministry of Communications. The Ministry of Communications received the permission to create the Fava sandbox in September this year.

Mohammad Khansari, head of the Information Technology Organization, said at the Fawa Sandbox press conference: There are two types of regulatory and development test environments, which is the regulatory case. The sandbox of the Ministry of Communications examines ideas with a specific mechanism. It may not be legal for an innovative idea or its laws are related to the traditional business sector, so the relevant laws need to be updated or created.

He explained about the process of reviewing ideas: Businesses are reviewed based on the request and it is determined which innovative field they are related to, so that they are handed over to its specialized working group.

Khansari added: We have obtained permission from the Secretariat of Test Environments to move the entire sandbox of the Ministry of Communications to the Information Technology Organization.

The head of the Information Technology Organization said about Fava’s sandbox performance mechanism: the test environment offers waivers and exemptions from some regulations from 6 months to one year so that the business can test innovative problems and obstacles, see where we need to amend the law or where the laws Complete or to be completed. During the grace period, which of course proceeds according to the existing laws, the business can follow its growth path.

The Deputy Minister of Communications also said about the benefits of the sandbox: This opportunity allows us to find more preparations in a limited operational environment and to know what we need in the field of laws so that we can use the capacity of the sandbox to prevent obstacles for businesses.

The Ministry of Communications is ready for all plans

Hamed Monkaresi, the vice president for policy and accreditation of the Information Technology Organization, also said: This sandbox, along with the rest of the sandboxes, is supposed to help the country’s innovation ecosystem. The main goal is to be able to attract the participation of the private sector in the regulatory process in order to understand the different aspects of regulating new technologies.

He continued: Currently, most of the innovations are in the field of information technology, and distinguishing whether an issue should be submitted to the IT sandbox or other sandboxes may make it difficult. A provision has been made in the working group that if a person has any doubt in this matter, it should be proposed and resolved and referred.

According to the announcement of this organization, two categories of businesses can enter the sandbox of the Ministry of Communications, first, businesses related to emerging technologies such as big data, Internet of Things, cloud computing, block chain, virtual reality, and augmented reality, and the second category of businesses related to the tasks of the Ministry. Communications, such as e-government service providers, data centers, cloud infrastructure, value-added service providers and several others.

He announced that he is ready to receive plans in all fields related to the Ministry of Communications, even post and logistics technologies, and said: If it is necessary to change the regulations of the Regulatory Commission, businesses can take action so that we can follow up, but the plans are limited to These are not, and new technology topics can also enter the sandbox.

What are the outputs of the sandbox?

Ahmad Nowrozi, the secretary of the integrated working group for the management and coordination of the test environments of the Ministry of Economy, also said in this meeting: Considering that in the era of digital transformation, the innovation of business models takes place at a faster rate than regulation, since 2018 the issue of supporting and regulating businesses that lack regulations It was included in the agenda of the National Center for Cyberspace.

Nowrozi further said: At that time, an integrated working group for coordination of test environments was established in the Ministry of Economy. 38 meetings have been held in this working group, as a result of which many plans have come to fruition. One of the tasks of the working group is to support the sector regulators and create test environments for them in their field. In this regard, there was an agreement in principle with the regulatory environment of the Ministry of Communications or the centrality of the Information Technology Organization.

He explained about the application registration and acceptance process: an integrated application registration and follow-up portal has been launched under the name irantama. After registering the request, the functional area, which may be related to several test environments, will be referred to the corresponding sandbox and will follow its path.

This official of the Ministry of Economy also said about the different outputs of sandboxes: three outputs may be obtained from the sandbox. There may be no serious concerns about business regulation and the business continues to operate as it is. It is also possible that the business model includes parts of the regulations, and for parts of it, there are gaps in the regulations that need to be updated.

The third case is that the business model is completely in a regulatory vacuum. The last case is that the risks of businesses are such that they cannot continue their activities.

Nowrozi also said about the possibility of extending the one-year deadline: the hand of the working group will not be closed on the extension of 6 months to one year, depending on the submission of a request for partial regulation, there is a possibility of extension.

Saeed Soleimani, General Manager of Strategy and Policy Development of the Information Technology Organization, also said: The activity license of Fava Sandbox was issued on 11th September 2023. In the meantime, we tried to form the necessary executive structure and coordinate with the ministry’s subdivisions and the private sector to use their ideas to enter the sandbox.