Introduction to Rural ICT Offices
World Summit on Information Society( WSIS) was held in Geneva Switzerland on 10 to 12 December 2003, where the heads of governments participated at a meeting on adopting strategies for creating inclusive Information Society; the outcome of which was the 10 objectives which should be implemented by 2015. One of the most important of which is presented as follows:

Rural Connectivity to the Information and Communication Technology Network and establishing public access points

The second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society was held in Tunisia two years later on 16 to 18 November 2005 to follow up and put emphasis on the decisions made by the Summit Meeting in Geneva.
In this context, Iran signed the Declaration of Principles on the Information Society in November 2003 adopted at the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, and actually committed to be active and effective within the structure of the Society.
For that reason, in 2004, in addition to appointing the executor for Rural ICT Project, the implementation guidelines, the annex for guideline, brokerage and management of Rural ICT Offices contract plan were set and codified. On the same basis, launching 10000 Rural ICT Offices during the Four Year National Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan was foreseen and implemented accordingly.

Definition of Rural ICT Offices
ICT stands for information and communication technology. Rural ICT offices are launched and operated to provide easy village access to information and communication technology. In other words, ICTs can be employed in rural offices to deliver public services in the remotest parts of the country in line with the Twenty-year Outlook Document and the Fourth National Economic, Social and Cultural Development Plan in order to achieve Social Justice and Electronic government. In addition to providing various services including post, post bank, telecommunications and other public services, internet connection and access and the telecommunication infrastructure required for providing these services is made available in the villages.
In addition to the abovementioned services which the public organizations can provide electronically to the villagers and remove their difficulties such as unnecessary travel between their villages and their nearby cities for access to the public services, other issues as general employment, human resource development, access to public information, saving time and travel expenses, and better quality service provision due to reduced rushing demands can be achieved.

The facilities and equipments which are foreseen to be available in the Rural Offices:
General Equipment:
•Building and fire extinguishers
•Anti-theft alarm systems
•Computer and communication tools and software applications :
• Routers
• Add / Drop Equipment
• Computers
• Servers
• Scanners
• Printers
• Webcams
• Required software
• Phones
• Fax machines
• Internet access with a minimum speed of 64K

Postal Equipment:
• Digital scales
• Sorting shelves
• Mailboxes
• Stamps and postal packets
• Required documents
• Parcel transportation lines, money amounts, bank documents

Post Bank Equipment:
• Saves
• Bill counters
• Bill identifiers
• Calculators
• Printers and software for banking

Qualified staff trained in ICDL (computer knowhow), Post and Post bank techniques are also employed to manage Rural ICT offices.

ICT, an appropriate platform for providing services of public institutions and organizations:
In fact, Rural ICT Offices are platforms for villagers' access to public services, including information and communication technology, Post and Post bank services. In other words, they are the government counters for villagers to receive public services through the internet.
In other words, Rural ICT Offices as the government counters in the villages can deliver the services provided by many other governmental organizations such as the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad, Rural Cooperation Agency, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Ministry of Education and other public and private institutions.

Services available in Rural ICT Offices:
Information and Communication Technology services:
• Information
• Telephony services
• Rural access to internet and E-government services( Statistics and registration services, notary registration, university entrance registration and course of study selection …)
• Creating job opportunities
• Purchasing Requirements and tools
• Providing mobile phone services

Postal Services:
• Accepting and handling normal and international ordered correspondence including letters and postal cards
• Accepting and handling all kinds of domestic letters (letters, press, and postcards and...)
• Supplying products in various markets
• Distribution of rural letters and consignments

Post Bank services:
• Banking and granting facilities (opening current accounts ,deposit/ savings accounts, interest-free accounts, short-term and long-term interest accounts…)
• Receiving facility bill payments, including water, electricity, gas, telephone, . . . bills
• Payment distribution of justice interest shares, and Imam Relief Charity Committee . . .