Iran s telecommunications industry is almost entirely state-owned, dominated by the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI). Fixed-line penetration in 2004 was relatively well-developed by regional standards, standing at 22 lines per 100 people, higher than Egypt with 14 and Saudi Arabia with 15, although behind the UAE with 27.In terms of mobile provision in 2004, however, Iran lagged all the countries mentioned above Iran has a population of 70 million with some 56% of Iranians under the age of 25.In 2008, there were more than 52,000 rural offices, providing Telecom services to the villages across the country. The number of fixed telephone lines is above 24 million, with penetration factor of 33.66%. Besides, there are 18 million private internet users in Iran (over 23 million when counting public/"internet cafe" users),making the country first in the Middle East, in terms of number.