Official expresses concern: Satellite internet may come to Iran within a year

Rasoul Jalili, a member of Iran's Supreme Cyberspace Council, said on Monday, August 1, that "satellite internet may come to our country within a year," adding that "we should not let fear of powerful new technology "slow down or stop" the Islamic Republic's regulation of cyberspace.

In an interview with ILNA News Agency, Rasoul Jalili considered satellite internet technology a "threat" to "violating the governance" of the Islamic Republic of Iran and, in his opinion, "other countries," and emphasized that "the emergence of new technologies such as satellite internet cannot be ignored."

He is referring to the Starlink technology of the American company SpaceX, which is supposed to allow people in all countries of the world to access the internet without filtering.

Starlink satellites currently cover the entire planet, but to achieve higher speeds and lower latency, the number of satellites needs to increase. The ultimate goal is to have 12,000 satellites in orbit.

Starlink satellites are located 500 kilometers above Earth and are connected to each other in a network.

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, announced in June this year that 69,000 customers are now connected to the Starlink network and that its internet services will be available to the entire world, except for the Arctic and Antarctic regions, starting in August this year.

He predicted that within the next 12 months, half a million people around the world will be connected to Starlink satellite internet.

Previously, on February 16, 2020, Abolhassan Firouzabadi, Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace of Iran, stated that with the advent of satellite internet, "the entire national information network may be put at risk" and announced that a working group had been formed to "confront" satellite internet.

For years, the Islamic Republic has been pursuing a plan to separate the Internet used by domestic users from the World Wide Web, and parts of this plan have been unveiled under the title "National Information Network."

No details have been released yet on how the task force intends to tackle the Starlink project.

Rasoul Jalili, a member of Iran's Supreme Cyberspace Council, continued his speech on Monday, expressing hope that some countries will "confront" satellite internet at the "international" level.

Mr. Jalili's remarks about the near possibility of people in Iran having unrestricted access to the internet come at a time when Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, recently called cyberspace in Iran "wild and unbridled" and criticized the failure of responsible institutions to restrict it.

In line with Ayatollah Khamenei's words, the Islamic Consultative Assembly in recent days, despite widespread opposition from Iranian social media users, voted to establish a special commission to decide on the implementation of a plan called "Protecting Users' Rights in Cyberspace and Regulating Social Media" to further restrict the Internet in Iran.

Source: Radio Farda