{"id":2980,"date":"2021-04-15T11:08:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T11:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filter.watch\/en\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2021-04-15T11:08:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T11:08:18","slug":"network-monitor-march-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filter.watch\/english\/2021\/04\/15\/network-monitor-march-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Network Monitor \u2013 March 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

March saw fewer major, targeted internet disruptions than February, when users in Sistan and Baluchestan Province experienced<\/a> an extended province-wide internet shutdown. However, Iranian internet users did experience continued periods of network instability throughout this month, as well as low-speed connections.<\/p>\n

In response to user complaints about its services, the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) blamed \u201cnew policies\u201d of the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company (TIC), although Filterwatch believes that disruptions to undersea cables may also have been a contributing factor in the slowdown.<\/p>\n

Read on for more details about internet disruptions in March.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

March 2 \u2013 IPM experiences yet another service outage<\/h2>\n

Iran\u2019s Research Center of Theoretical Physics & Mathematics (or IPM) (AS6736) was almost completely disconnected from the Internet on 2 March for a period of roughly two hours.<\/p>\n

This is the seventh time in the past twelve months\u00a0 that IPM has experienced major disruptions, following outages in March<\/a>, June<\/a>, July<\/a>, August,<\/a> October<\/a>, November<\/a> and December<\/a>. It has failed to provide any explanations to the public, or its users.<\/p>\n

IPM is responsible for handling Iran\u2019s top-level domain, and provides Internet services for universities, educational institutions, and research centers, which also tend to experience service disruptions as a result.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

March 5 \u2013 Hosting company, Tehran \u2018Smart City\u2019 implementer experience outages<\/h2>\n

AS204213, owned by the hosting company Netmihan Communication Company Ltd<\/a>, was almost completely disconnected from the Internet for about one hour.<\/p>\n

This is the fourth time this year that Netmihan Communication Company has experienced major disruptions, following outages in November<\/a> and December<\/a> 2020 and February<\/a> 2021. It has failed to provide any public explanation about the disruptions to its users.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

The Tehran Municipality ICT Organization \u2013 the organisation in charge of implementing \u2018Smart City\u2019 initiatives in Tehran \u2013 lost most of its connectivity. The organisation had previously experienced disruptions in January<\/a>, February<\/a>, June<\/a>, August<\/a>, and September<\/a> last year. Again, it offered no explanation for the outage to its users.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

March 9 \u2013 TIC denies \u201cintentional restrictions\u201d on speeds, blames undersea cable fault<\/h2>\n

On 9 March, in response to a user complaint<\/a> of slow internet speeds on the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI)\u00a0 \u2013 submitted to the Communications Regulatory Authority\u2019s (CRA) \u201ccustomer complaints\u201d portal<\/a> \u2013 the TCI claimed that changes in their network have taken place due to the implementation of \u201cnew policies\u201d at the Telecommunication InfrastructureCompany (TIC).<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> with the Iranian tech magazine Peivast on 12 March, Peyman Ghareh-Daghi, Director of Consumer Protection at the CRA denied \u201cany intentional restrictions\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to Ghareh-Daghi the disruption was caused by \u201ca fault in an undersea cable in the Mediterranean Sea linking Egypt to Italy\u201d. He added that \u201cthe upstream Qatari operator\u201d has announced it cannot repair the link until March 24, \u201cdue to a NATO naval drill in the area.\" However, according to NATO's website<\/a> there is no ongoing naval drill in the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n

Filterwatch investigations show that the TIC appeared to have lost transit from AS6762 (Telecom Italia Sparkle) between 9-13 March.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Aria Shatel Company Ltd on AS31549, Asiatech Data Transmission company on AS43754 and Afranet on AS25184 also appeared to have lost their transit from AS6762 (Telecom Italia Sparkle) from midnight on 13 March.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yemen also experienced lost transit on March 11.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There have been a number of cable breaks<\/a> on EIG and SMW5 subsea cables which affected internet users in Africa. Pakistan was also impacted<\/a> by the SMW5 subsea cable break.<\/p>\n

In summary:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    Iran clearly lost data transit from AS6762 Telecom Italia Sparkle;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    The denial of the implementation of a new policy by the TIC is in contradiction with the TCI\u2019s official response to a customer complaint.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Although the loss of transit from AS6762 on other providers (including in Yemen) lends some credence to the claim of a cable fault, Filterwatch cannot confirm whether the disruptions were caused by such faults, or a new TIC policy.<\/p>\n

    March 14 \u2013 DATAK experiences multiple disruptions<\/h3>\n

    DATAK Internet Engineering Inc on AS25124 suffered multiple disruptions and lost almost all its connection to the internet at around 1pm local time.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    March 28 \u2013 Brief inaccessibility of Signal TLS proxy website<\/h2>\n

    The Signal TLS proxy website<\/a> was inaccessible for a very brief duration of 43 seconds on the Asiatech data center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    March saw fewer major, targeted internet disruptions than February, when users in Sistan and Baluchestan Province experienced an extended province-wide internet shutdown. However, Iranian internet users did experience continued periods of network instability throughout this month, as well as low-speed connections. In response to user complaints about its services, the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI)Continue reading \"Network Monitor \u2013 March 2021\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-network-monitor","entry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t