The clandestine network smuggling Starlink tech into Iran to beat internet blackout

Sahand tells the BBC World Service he sends satellite internet terminals into Iran to help show "the real picture". 5 hours ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Reha Kansara BBC Global Disinformation Unit "If even one extra person is able to access the internet, I think it's successful and it's worth it," says Sahand. The Iranian man is visibly anxious, speaking to the BBC outside Iran, as he carefully explains how he is part of a clandestine network smuggling satellite internet technology - which is illegal in Iran - into the country. For more than two months, Iran has been in digital darkness as the government maintains one of the longest-running national internet shutdowns ever recorded worldwide. The Starlink devices Sahand sends to Iran are one of the most reliable ways of bypassing the shutdown.

The white, flat terminals, paired with routers, provide internet access by connecting to a network of satellites owned by Elon Musk's SpaceX company, allowing users to completely bypass Iran's heavily controlled domestic internet. The human rights organisation Witness estimated in January that there are at least 50,000 Starlink terminals in Iran. State-affiliated media has reported multiple cases of people being arrested for selling and buying Starlink terminals, including four people - two of them foreign nationals - arrested last month for "importing satellite internet equipment". However, a market for the terminals in Iran continues, including through a public Persian-language Telegram channel called NasNet. A volunteer involved with the channel from outside Iran told the BBC that approximately 5,000 Starlink terminals have been sold through it in the past two and a half years.

Much of this information is known or believed by human rights organisations to have come from people accessing social media platforms via Starlink. Iran's current internet set-up has been described as a "tiered system". Before the blackouts, Iranians were also able to access the global internet. Now, under the blackout, only a select few officials and other individuals, including journalists working for state media, have unfettered internet access using what are known as "white sim cards". In 2022, Musk said he was activating Starlink in Iran following severe internet disruptions during protests sparked by the death in custody of an Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini.

Now, with the authorities increasingly on the hunt for Starlink terminals, Sahand and his network are advising users to use VPNs with the satellite technology in order to remain incognito. Sahand is one of three people the BBC has spoken to who say they are involved in smuggling Starlink devices. "People need internet to be able to share what's happening on the ground," says Sahand. Yasmin, an American-Iranian whose name we have also changed, has told the BBC a male member of her family has been arrested in Iran and accused of espionage for possessing a Starlink terminal. The BBC asked the Iranian embassy in London why only a few people are allowed access to the internet in Iran and why penalties for using Starlink are so severe, but received no response.

It recently launched a scheme called "Internet Pro", which allows certain businesses some access to the global internet. One man who works for a company in Iran has told the BBC he has been given access via the initiative. She warns that internet blackouts are becoming a "new norm". The executive director for the Abdorrahman Boroumand Centre for Human Rights, Roya Boroumand, says that an information vacuum in Iran "allows the state to broadcast its narrative, ie portray protesters as violent actors or foreign agents, while its victims, including those sentenced to death, and informed sources are silenc Sahand tells the BBC World Service he sends satellite internet terminals into Iran to help show "the real picture". The clandestine network smuggling Starlink tech into Iran to beat internet blackout