Iran’s internet is in a state of continuous disruption, with new data revealing a system under immense stress from both internal policies and external pressures. Over the past month, a staggering 680 hours of internet disruption were recorded across 60 separate incidents. These outages are a symptom of a larger digital crisis, fueled by restrictive policies, filtering, and a lack of investment in infrastructure. This report synthesizes technical findings with analyses from official sources to provide a comprehensive look at the state of Iran’s internet in August 2025.
While many incidents were geographically limited to a single city, nearly a quarter had a broader impact, simultaneously affecting several provinces including Tehran, Zanjan, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Qom, Ilam, and Golestan.
Persistent, widespread outages of the Global Positioning System (GPS) have also continued since the start of the 12-day war, directly impacting people’s livelihoods and daily expenses. These technical findings, combined with official and specialized reports, provide a more complete picture of the current state of Iran’s internet.
Over the past month, several official and specialized reports have been released. These include:
- The Tehran E-Commerce Association’s fifth report: Highlights poor service quality and restrictive policies
- The Communications Regulatory Authority of Iran’s (CRA) report: Points to the slow pace of communications infrastructure development
- The Telecommunication Infrastructure Company’s report: Warns of security threats and cyberattacks
- The joint IranTalent – Tehran Chamber of Commerce report: Details the impact on businesses and the digital economy.
Together, these reports and recent events in Iran’s internet sector present a clear picture of an internet that lacks quality, sustainable development, adequate security, and the ability to support the digital economy.
Key Findings
Widespread and Continuous Disruptions: Over the past month, we observed 60 incidents of internet disruption, most of which occurred during peak usage hours. Nearly a quarter of these incidents affected multiple provinces simultaneously. In just five days from August 21 to 25, a staggering 631 hours of internet disruption were reported.
Internet Crisis in Rural Areas and Online Education: The combination of internet and power outages in smaller cities and towns has created a more critical situation than in Tehran. With the start of online education in September, a more serious issue than what was faced during the COVID-19 pandemic is expected due to the lack of stable internet and power outages.
Low-Quality Internet and Ongoing Filtering: The Tehran E-commerce Association put out a report this month confirming that the low quality of Iran’s internet is a direct result of filtering and internal policies. Iran’s internet ranks near the bottom of global rankings, performing particularly poorly in key metrics. Its scores for speed (84/100), disruptions (92/100), and restrictions (99/100) are indicative of a system under severe stress.
Officials’ response remains the same, repeating promises to lift filtering. The Tehran E-Commerce Association is a non-profit organization that represents a group of technology companies and startups in Tehran. It focuses on advocating for the digital economy and addressing challenges faced by businesses in this sector.
Slow Infrastructure Development and the Scourge of Self-Sanctions: The penetration rate of fixed internet in the country has reached just 13%. Operators are facing a form of “self-sanctioning” due to import restrictions on standard equipment, all under the guise of localization policies.
Cyber Vulnerability and Concerns over Citizen Data Security: The Telecommunication Infrastructure Company’s report reveals a 104% daily increase in cyberattacks on government portals and public service gateways compared to the winter. In this climate, the government is aggressively pursuing a digital transformation project that aims to centralize citizens’ data within executive bodies.
Economic Consequences of Poor Internet Quality: Internet disruptions have dealt a heavy blow to the digital economy; more than 63% of companies active in online services and technology have experienced a decrease in cash flow.
Infrastructure and Internet Access
Among the 60 disruption incidents observed, most fall into the medium disruption category, which is represented by a score of 45 to 55 out of 100 on the chart below. These scores are determined and classified based on a set of indicators, including the number of affected users, geographical scope, source reliability, duration of the disruption, time of occurrence, type of operator, type of service affected, and the social and political impact of the disruptions. Each indicator has a different weight, which is factored into the final score depending on its importance and role in user access.
In terms of geographical scope, the largest share, at 67%, was related to disruptions in a single city (e.g., Tehran, Tabriz, Shiraz, etc.) . In contrast, 25% of the disruptions were more widespread, simultaneously affecting several provinces, including Tehran, Zanjan, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Qom, Ilam, Golestan, and others.
More than 70% of the disruptions occurred in the second half of the month, specifically from August 15 to 31.
Although the number of disruptions was equal in the third and fourth weeks, their duration was significantly longer in the third week, with 631 hours of disruption reported just between August 15 and August 21.
Furthermore, in terms of the “number of affected users,” which is divided into three scales in this report—small (fewer than 500,000 users), medium (between 500,000 and 1 million users), and large (more than 1 million users)—over 70% of the disruptions occurred on a small scale.
By operator, data centers accounted for the largest share of disruptions at 76%, followed by fixed-line home and business connections (see Share of Operator Type chart). Mobile networks represented only 1.7% of incidents, but even this small share is significant, as a mobile disruption can simultaneously affect a large number of users.
Over the past month, the majority of disruptions occurred during peak hours, including business hours and evenings when the network is under the heaviest load. This indicates that service quality significantly drops during high-demand periods, affecting a greater number of users. In contrast, 43% of disruptions happened during off-peak hours, such as late at night and early in the morning, when user activity is lower. Although a smaller share, this demonstrates the network’s lack of stability even during times of low usage.
How Restrictive Policies Are Driving Down Internet Quality
The fifth report on internet quality in Iran, published by the Tehran E-commerce Association, confirms that the poor quality of the country’s internet is a direct result of internal policies and filtering. According to the report, Iran’s internet remains slow, highly prone to disruptions, and heavily restricted, ranking 97th among the top 100 global economies.
Iran’s specific rankings for internet quality are:
- Speed: 84 out of 100
- Disruption: 92 out of 100
- Restrictions: 99 out of 100
These numbers alone speak volumes about the slow development of the country’s technology infrastructure and the increasing trend of restrictions and disruptions.
According to the report’s data, Instagram is still the most widely used social network, chosen by 63% of users and serving as the primary source of income for 60% of online businesses in Iran—despite the fact that it is blocked and filtered in Iran. Unsurprisingly, 86% of internet users now depend on VPNs, a figure that rises to 93% among those under 30. The report also states that in addition to VPN usage, the use of Starlink internet is on the rise. It appears that the creation of laws criminalizing the use of Starlink has not deterred users.
The report also highlights the “Iran-Access” policy—which blocks domestic websites for users outside the country—as both inefficient and costly. This is a policy the Islamic Republic adopted during crises, such as the 12-day war, to evade cyberattacks. Yet, two months after the ceasefire, many government websites remain restricted under Iran-Access.
Corroborating the Tehran E-commerce Association’s report, numerous user reports on social media indicate that the problem of internet outages, combined with power cuts in smaller cities and towns, has become a more severe crisis compared to Tehran.
In addition, a statement signed by more than 100 leading Iranian digital economy startups, as well as the Iranian Public Relations Association, is noteworthy. In their joint statement, the startups demanded an end to restrictive internet policies, including:
- Lifting the filtering of social media, educational, and skills-based websites
- Increasing international internet speed and bandwidth
- Removing restrictions on modern internet protocols like HTTP/3 and IPv6
Notably, the CEO of the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company denied the existence of these restrictions on his personal X (formerly Twitter) page. He ignored the widespread disruptions to the IPv6 protocol that occurred from June 13, at the start of the 12-day war, until late July. Instead, he cited seven-day Cloudflare data from August 7 to August 13 to support his claim.
One of the reasons for the internet crisis in Iran was revealed during a meeting between the Minister of Communications and the directors of telecommunication operators: the operators’ “self-sanctioning.”
The meeting, which took place after Parliament issued an ultimatum to the Minister to improve internet quality, also identified “energy shortages and frequent power outages” as a cause of the decline in internet quality. These outages have occurred over two thousand times in telecommunication centers in the first half of the current year alone.
They explained that domestic batteries lack the necessary quality for network stability, and the import of foreign batteries and modems is restricted under the pretext of “supporting domestic production.” In practice, this policy functions as a form of self-sanctioning: a domestic modem reaches speeds of only 4 Mbps, compared to 115 Mbps for a foreign model.
There are over 110,000 active cell towers in the country, but fewer than half of them are 4G. It’s also worth noting that on August 12, some of these towers were being dismantled by the municipality based on Article 100 of the law. After widespread protests, a temporary halt to this action was ordered. Experts warn that dismantling the towers, due to flaws in the initial network design, will force users to fall back on older generations like 2G and 3G. It also creates additional pressure on nearby towers, leading to signal degradation, dropped calls, and slower internet speeds.
Instead of taking action to remove obstacles, the 14th government in Iran’s internet sector has continued to repeat the familiar promise of “lifting filtering.”
Hajimirzaei, the Chief of Staff to the President, stated that the main condition for lifting the filter on foreign platforms is their “official presence and compliance with Iran’s domestic laws,” and he announced that multiple negotiations have been held on this matter. However, these conditions appear to be “unachievable” given the current sanctions and the possibility of UN “snapback” sanctions being activated.
Communication Infrastructure Development and Localization Policies
Amid multiple crises affecting internet quality, a Spring 2025 report from the Communications Regulatory Authority of Iran (CRA) indicates the slow development of communication infrastructure in the country.
Slow Growth of Fixed Internet
While mobile internet boasts a penetration rate exceeding 140% and remains the dominant form of connectivity, the penetration rate for fixed internet has reached only 13% after a period of extremely slow growth. Fixed internet is the foundational backbone of the digital economy; without its robust development, key sectors like online education, enterprise services, and high-bandwidth businesses face significant and persistent limitations.
The CRA report also notes that only about 158,000 new households have been brought under fiber optic coverage. This minimal progress sharply contradicts the Minister of Communications’ public promises to accelerate fiber optic development. Proposed solutions, such as establishing an Iranian fiber optic factory in Venezuela as part of Iran’s “technology diplomacy,” have so far failed to yield any tangible results.
This slow development of stable infrastructure exacerbates the digital divide between major urban centers and disadvantaged regions. Interestingly, despite this critical gap, rumors suggest a new push for online education in schools and universities is planned for September. Given past failures—such as the 600,000 students left behind during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a lack of internet access and smart devices—launching this initiative amid a current electricity crisis and frequent internet outages is likely to create an even more serious problem.
Focus on Localization and Control
Simultaneously with this infrastructure stagnation, the Ministry of Communications and the government have intensified their focus on hardware and software localization projects. In August 2025, the development of a domestic mobile operating system once again became a central pillar of Iran’s cyberspace policy.
In line with the 25-year cooperation agreement between Iran and China, the Chinese side has committed to transferring knowledge and solutions for mobile OS production to Iran. The Supreme Council of Cyberspace has set an ambitious goal: a domestic operating system must be installed on at least 20% of the country’s smartphones—over three million devices—by the end of 2025.
Test versions of a rewritten Android OS are currently being evaluated. The strategic plan is to manage all service layers and updates (FOTA) exclusively through domestic servers. This approach aligns directly with the goals of the National Information Network (NIN) document, aiming to centralize control over user data and behavior.
Cyberattacks: Another Dimension of Infrastructure Vulnerability
While regulatory statistics show the state of infrastructure development and user access quality, a new report from the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company sheds light on another dimension of the issue: network security and its resilience against cyberattacks. This quarterly report reveals that the challenges facing Iran’s internet are not limited to slow development or poor quality; the country’s critical infrastructure is also under constant security threats.
According to the report, more than 215,000 cyberattacks were identified in the spring of 2025. The average number of daily cyberattacks increased by 104% compared to the winter of 2024, reaching 2,313 attacks per day. The majority of these attacks targeted government portals and public service gateways, whereas in the winter of 2024, the primary targets were online businesses and internet service providers.
Simultaneously, on August 2, 2025, the President issued an eight-point directive tasking the Ministry of Communications and the Information Technology Organization with unifying systems, facilitating data exchange between government bodies, and creating a digital single window. Shortly after, the Information Technology Organization announced in a report that the National Smart Government Services Window now has over 67 million users. The “Iran Pass” digital identity application is intended to enable the use of electronic documents (national ID cards, birth certificates, academic records) and connect individuals’ legal addresses and geographical locations to service systems.
The government’s insistence on data centralization in a context where government infrastructure and systems have been repeatedly attacked has raised significant concerns about the security of citizens’ data.
The Impact of Disruptions on People’s Livelihoods and the Economy
The challenges discussed—poor internet quality, slow infrastructure development, and security vulnerabilities—directly and severely impact Iran’s economy and people’s livelihoods. A joint report by IranTalent and the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, based on a survey of over 700 managers and economic professionals, starkly illustrates how the 12-day war and its resulting internet disruptions dealt a heavy blow to the country’s digital economy.
Note on Sources: IranTalent is Iran’s leading online professional and job-seeking platform. It is a critical source of data on the country’s labor market and tech sector, making its surveys with the Tehran Chamber of Commerce a reliable indicator of economic trends among managers and professionals.
Key Findings on the Digital Sector
The report’s findings on online businesses and the IT sector clearly show the economic repercussions of the war:
- Financial Downturn: Over 63% of companies in the technology and online services sectors experienced a decrease in cash flow, a figure higher than in many other industries.
- Post-Conflict Recovery: In the period following the conflict, this sector demonstrated a robust recovery, with a 42% improvement in sales and cash flow, recovering faster than some traditional industries.
- Operational Barriers: Disruptions to the internet and communication infrastructure were cited as one of the most significant operational barriers for these businesses during the conflict.
- Telework and Communication: Technology and online service companies also suffered the most from restrictions on teleworking and communication outages, underscoring their unique vulnerability.
This data underscores that the quality and security of internet infrastructure are not merely technical or security concerns. Instead, they are directly tied to the health of the country’s digital economy and the economic well-being of millions of citizens.