Iran’s internet slowdown: Whose foot is on Iran’s internet cable?
Iran’s internet slowdown: Whose foot is on Iran’s internet cable? This is a report about the state of the internet in Iran. In recent years, whenever internet speed in Iran faced issues, a humorous saying circulated among the people: ‘So-and-so, take your foot off the cable.’ Usually, the target of this saying was the Minister of Communications. However, under President Raisi’s administration, this slowdown has become significant. So much so that Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, the Minister of Communications under President Rouhani, has blamed the current government for the internet slowdown and, in a detailed interview with the podcast ‘Sekkeh,’ he extensively discussed the anti-digital space policies of certain groups and their pressures on the government aimed at reducing public access to the internet.
Although the current minister, Isa Zarepour, responds to complaints by saying that if there is a slowdown, people can call the 195 system and report it, and we will certainly investigate it, or that the speed and slowness of the internet must have a standard.
It is possible that at our home the speed is high, while at your workplace it is low, or vice versa. According to global rankings, we have improved six ranks in mobile internet, and in terms of speed, we were ranked 21 and are now 25. There might be a disruption in mobile internet somewhere.
Meanwhile, Azari Jahromi, in his recent interview with the ‘Sekkeh’ podcast, stated that the average internet speed in Iran per Iranian is 15.2 kilobytes, while the average speed in Argentina is 4113. When asked for the reason, he said the reason is filtering. He mentioned that the main opposition of some to the internet in Iran is its media function. Azari Jahromi, in the same interview, said some people claimed 3G was forbidden and had even obtained a fatwa against it.
Moving quietly towards the Protection Plan
In the past year, Iran’s internet slowdown is miles away from the promises that Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the thirteenth government, made as one of his electoral slogans before taking office. Now, every day, the internet is slow for various reasons, and sometimes it is cut off for strange and unbelievable reasons. There is no news of Raisi holding the Minister of Communications accountable for these cuts and slowdowns, and it seems the parliament also agrees with this, as they do not even summon Isa Zarepour, the Minister of Communications, to the parliament for accountability.
Meanwhile, many believe that the internet cuts and slowdowns in the past year are actually the government’s slow and stealthy move towards implementing the Protection Plan for cyberspace, which has also brought many controversies. However, the Minister of Communications, instead of speaking transparently, has preferred to evade the truth by making strange excuses.
Telecommunications at the command of the governing shareholder
One of the initiatives during Azari Jahromi’s tenure, aimed at increasing public access to the internet, was breaking monopolies, something he says completely happened in the mobile internet network but did not occur in home internet because it is under the supervision of the Telecommunications Company, which has been privatized and its main shareholder is a governmental entity. He says there was a time when we didn’t have a tariff higher than 128 kilobytes, and ordinary people didn’t have access to higher-speed internet. Students could use 512 internet with a student card. While gigabyte internet was offered worldwide, here it was 128 at exorbitant prices.
Azari Jahromi’s complaint against Telecommunications
The former Minister of Communications further explains that Telecommunications does not want to break its monopoly in the home internet sector and give access to the private sector. He says if I do this, national security will be at risk. I say what does national security have to do with you? I am the government, I am the authority, but Telecommunications claims its shareholder is more authoritative than me.
Azari Jahromi says that based on this, I filed a complaint against the privatization of Telecommunications, and a case has been opened in the judiciary in this regard. He adds that by gathering evidence, a bill was submitted to the parliament in the late previous government to amend the Telecommunications privatization law, but now I have heard that the current government has withdrawn and stopped the bill.
Towards breaking monopolies
Azari Jahromi says what we did was remove this tariff. In 2015, we removed the tariff and made the market competitive. The gentlemen before us were conservative, saying since there are resolutions that we can provide internet above 128 kilobytes and 256 kilobytes to people, we removed this. We set a tariff on the connection but made the consumption competitive.
Recently, in response to the government’s recent statements about the state of the internet, he said for us, this achievement is enough: that ideas like 128 kilobit per second internet for the people of Iran being sufficient, or the development of the third and fourth generation of mobile phones being considered contrary to sacred law, or bringing the internet to villages being labeled as implementing the 2030 agenda, have been changed to the slogan of multi-megabyte internet for homes.
Political decision of the think tank to reduce consumption
The former Minister of Communications says in 2020, overnight, in a think tank, they decided to create a restriction on the internet by raising the tariff. Others decided for the two major market operators to raise prices. This decision was not at all economic but political. I also dealt with it economically and said you have no right.
Their mechanism was to remove popular packages. I filed a complaint with the disciplinary forces. They said violating your regulations has a two-billion-toman fine. We will pay this fine. We also decreed to fine them ten percent of their income. After this fine, they backed down—a political decision to push people towards reduced consumption.
DMCA Cover