How can you bypass internet outages in Iran?

Internet connection in Iran is down. What can be the way out of this situation and what are the possibilities to reconnect to the Internet? Mehdi Yahyanejad, an expert in Internet technologies, answered questions from Deutsche Welle about this issue.

Five days have passed since the protests against the high price of gasoline began in Iran. The internet was cut off on the second day of the protests at 6:00 PM on Saturday, November 15, by a decision of the National Security Council (Shak).

According to a report by Netblocks, an organization that monitors internet traffic worldwide, the internet in Iran was usable at less than four percent capacity on the fifth day of protests.

There is no doubt that the government has cut off the internet to curb the protests and prevent protesters from communicating with each other and with the outside world. Gholamhossein Esmaili, a spokesman for the judiciary, has said that the internet should have been cut off sooner.

On the other hand, Internet technology experts are thinking of ways to escape this situation. But what are the ways?

Using SIM cards from neighboring countries

Mehdi Yahyanejad, an expert in Internet technologies and developer of the "Toshe" technology, explained to Deutsche Welle in an interview about various ways to escape from an Internet outage.

Yahyanejad said: "The best way for the border strip is to use SIM cards from neighboring countries to bypass this situation. Those who are in other places and are very technically advanced have found ways that I prefer not to talk about so that those ways are not blocked. But a way that the entire population can use, unfortunately, does not exist at the moment."

Data transfer via the "Toshe" channel

Yahyanejad, developer of the "Toshe" technology, continued: "This technology unilaterally allows digital information and content to be received via satellite. Of course, these plans are available to those who have satellite television."

The Toosheh research and development project began about seven years ago, and began working on Iran about three years ago. The project allows data to be transmitted through the Toosheh channel program receivers and can be used on mobile phones or laptops.

According to Mehdi Yahyanejad, the Toshe project is a digital information distribution platform that can receive content up to eight gigabytes. This method may be practically the only way to receive Internet files when the Internet is down, as it bypasses the Internet.

Using a modem

Yahianezhad also considers using a modem as one of the ways to reconnect to the Internet. However, he explained that those who still have modems in their homes can use them. However, the expert said that new computers and laptops no longer have modems, and if there are those who still have modems and can find numbers, they can use these modems.

He further explained that the speed of data transfer via modem is limited, and international calls are expensive, and because they use telephone lines, their cost is also high, and ultimately, using a modem is not a solution that the masses of people can use.

How long will the internet outage last?

According to this expert, the internet shutdown in Iran will continue for now. He emphasized: "As long as the government feels that it is in danger and needs to suppress the people, it will continue to shut down the internet. Because they have realized that the internet helps people find each other and can better plan their presence in the streets. And the internet also helps videos and photos from Iran to be sent outside Iran so that Iranian news gets better coverage so that the demonstrations get more international support."

According to Yahyanejad, by cutting off the internet, the government has succeeded to some extent in preventing international support, and so far, support has been more or less limited to the United States.

Economic consequences of internet outages

Mehdi Yahyanejad, an expert in Internet technologies, also pointed out the economic consequences of the internet shutdown at the end of his speech. In his opinion, the internet shutdown will seriously damage the country's economy and be detrimental to private and government companies in exchanging information and money.

According to this expert, when the government is in a bad economic situation, cutting off internet connections with the outside world will prevent companies operating in the import and export sectors from importing or exporting goods.