Iran’s internet policies are taking a stark turn, revealing a paradoxical strategy that aims for regional influence while tightening the digital leash on its citizens. In the past month alone, at least 90 internet disruptions have been reported, with half classified as “severe,” painting a grim picture of a nation moving toward a controlled and tiered internet experience, rather than one with improved quality and stability.
This dual approach sees Iran forging international agreements to secure a regional foothold in data transit, yet simultaneously, at home, it’s doubling down on domestic control. At the core of this domestic agenda is the National Information Network, a sweeping policy framework aimed at centralizing infrastructure, expanding surveillance, censoring content, and creating differentiated internet access. The frequent internet outages, often coinciding with power fluctuations and lasting several hours at a time during peak hours, expose the vast chasm between official claims of infrastructure development and the frustrating reality for users.
“Cyber Free Zones” and Soaring Costs: Inequality Takes Root
The latest manifestation of this policy is the unveiling of “Cyber Free Zones” by the Deputy Minister of Communications, touted as a replacement for tiered, or differentiated internet access. In practice, this initiative appears to formalize unequal internet access, transforming it into a privilege for specific regions or groups. The Cyber Free Zones are special designated areas, such as certain industrial parks, technology hubs, or government-sanctioned institutions, where users are reportedly granted fewer internet restrictions and access to a broader range of online services, including some that are otherwise filtered for the general public.
Further exacerbating the divide is the proposed 75% internet tariff increase by operators. While the government has outwardly resisted, previous approvals, such as “Regulation No. 266 of the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA)”, which defined “fair usage” and “separation of domestic and international traffic,” have already paved the way for hidden cost hikes. Despite public opposition to tariff increases, the Ministry of Communications and the Parliament have allocated over 44% of the ministry’s capital budget this year to the National Information Network. Compounding this, 94% of the government’s communication revenue comes from operator fees, creating a feedback loop that ultimately burdens consumers with higher prices.
5G Rollout Plagued by Concerns and Infrastructure Woes
Critics of the tariff hike emphasize that internet quality must improve before prices rise. A recent 5G frequency band auction was held, but experts like Saeed Souzangar and Arian Iqbal have raised serious concerns about its transparency and technical soundness. Iqbal, an IT expert, pointed out that one of the winning operators, Rightel, has no prior experience in 5G development, suggesting that allocating resources to them could lead to “blocking of frequency resources.” Souzangar also questioned the technical capabilities of these operators, and Mohammad Keshvari, an ICT activist, warned that the process could result in the “leasing of frequencies” and a re-monopolization of the communications market.
Adding to the skepticism, Asiatahk’s CEO stated, “The current network cannot even maintain itself, let alone support 5G.” Furthermore, according to Sattar Hashemi, telecom site batteries only last 30 minutes during power outages, rendering 5G infrastructure virtually useless in such scenarios.
A Month of Digital Blackouts: The Evidence Mounts
Analysis of internet disruption data from the past month reveals approximately 90 incidents, with half classified as “severe.” At least 11 provinces, including Mazandaran, Zanjan, Khuzestan, East Azerbaijan, and Alborz, experienced outages. Over half of these disruptions occurred during peak hours, lasting an average of three hours. Data indicates that the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) and data centers were responsible for the majority of these disruptions, particularly in provincial outages.
During this period, Zitel experienced a complete internet service outage for about three hours on May 11th, citing “network disruptions” on social media. Domestic applications were also affected. On May 22nd, Neshan, a mapping application, was inaccessible for about half an hour due to power fluctuations in two Tehran data centers. Similarly, on May 23rd, the Eitaa and Baleh messaging apps were down for approximately 10 hours due to maintenance operations at their hosting data centers.
These numerous disruptions, their alignment with power outages, and the inherent fragility of communication infrastructure underscore a significant lack of network stability a stark contradiction to claims of infrastructure development.
Content Control and Geopolitical Ambitions
Beyond the outages, government policies are actively shaping content consumption. The “Content Production Movement,” which shares traffic revenue with government-approved domestic content creators, aims to steer users towards local platforms. This strategy complements the persistent filtering of international platforms like YouTube, Telegram, and Twitter, with their unblocking seemingly removed from the High Council of Cyberspace’s agenda, as no meetings on the matter have been held in the first two months of this Iranian year (since March 21).
Despite facing slow internet speeds, frequent outages, and widespread filtering at home, Iran is aggressively pursuing its geopolitical ambitions to become a data transit hub. Agreements with Azerbaijan’s Delta operator, a 50% increase in transit data traffic through Iran in the past four months, the expansion of data centers like the 1000-rack facility in the Payam Special Economic Zone, the development of border optical fiber with 100 gigabits per second capacity, and the formation of a National Information Network equipment accreditation committee all signal a strong focus on “technology diplomacy.”
Cybersecurity and AI Governance: Control Over Innovation
In the cybersecurity realm, the establishment of the AFTA (Security of the Information Production and Exchange Environment) headquarters and a 4.5-fold increase in licensing in the AFTA industry in May highlight a focus on indigenization. However, this comes with mounting concerns about privacy violations and the collection of public and semi-private data. Without a clear definition of public data, the risk of exploiting citizen information in the name of “security” has increased. The police’s “connected car” initiative, for instance, represents a foray into technological surveillance in daily life that could lead to permanent behavioral monitoring structures, reminiscent of China’s social credit system, or be misused by the government for specific agendas, as seen with the “hijab SMS” messages.
Regarding cryptocurrencies, a dispute between the Central Bank and the Ministry of Communications over regulatory authority led to the formation of a temporary working group on May 28th, involving key institutions, tasked with designing a final policy structure within a year. Currently, however, the crypto market is grappling with confusion and ambiguous regulations.
Finally, the governance structure for artificial intelligence has also shifted. The previous executive body has been replaced by the Artificial Intelligence Application Headquarters, now serving as the policymaker. This change signifies a government orientation towards “regulation” and “data governance” rather than research and development or innovation. Experts believe the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology is the only effective operational player in this field, having provided over 14 billion Iranian Rials in subsidies to active companies last year.
In summary, Iran’s internet policy over the past month clearly prioritizes continuing the trend of digital governance monopolization, strengthening regulatory bodies, developing indigenous infrastructure for control and surveillance, and directing users towards domestic platforms. This is happening concurrently with efforts to build a regional role in international data transmission infrastructure.