Internet Outage in Iran: Damages of 113 Hours of Blackout

Internet outage in Iran continues intermittently. Officials of the Iran Chamber of Commerce say that foreign trade has come to a standstill, universities and students as well as some patients have faced problems, and the process of examining visa applications for Germany has been disrupted.

Despite reports of internet reconnection in some provinces, internet outage continues to varying degrees in most parts of Iran; a situation that not only has prevented the free flow of information in this country and severely disrupted news gathering and reporting about Iran, but has also created serious problems for activities in other sectors. Domestic websites, by speaking with officials and experts inside Iran, have pointed to some of these damages; from damages reported by the Iran Chamber of Commerce to travel service offices. In the latest comments, Masoud Daneshvar, head of the transportation commission of the Chamber of Commerce, told ILNA news agency: “Internet outage has shut down Iran’s foreign trade.” This official says that the condition of international trade is the exchange of information; if we cannot exchange the necessary information at the moment, the possibility of international trade is also lost.

An expert who does not wish to be named, in an interview with Deutsche Welle regarding international trade and Iranian companies active in this field, says that some of these companies have access to “government VPN” and use it. Pointing out that other companies can only use fax and telephone facilities to communicate with their customers and partners outside Iran, he says that if this situation continues, these companies will necessarily have to look for other solutions.

Disruption in Academic Exchanges and Problems for Study Abroad Applicants

However, the economic sector and activities are not the only area that the internet outage has confronted with difficulties. Universities and academic activities are also suffering from this situation. The president of Tehran University today, November 21, in an interview with ISNA news agency, referring to the problems created by the internet outage for universities, said: “Our universities are international universities and have extensive dealings with the world and the existence of internet is necessary for universities.” The president of Tehran University, expressing hope for a quick resolution of the problem, reported negotiations with the Ministry of Science to connect to the internet.

Iranian applicants studying at universities outside the country, given the specified deadlines for submitting their study applications which in most cases are done online, are another group of citizens that the internet outage has confronted with problems.

On social networks such as Twitter, some users outside Iran have written about providing assistance to students to communicate with universities outside Iran, correspondence and explanation of reasons for delays and help in uploading required documents.

Disruption in Visa Applications

Among other areas where internet outage has disrupted activities, one can point to the application for visa issuance for trips outside Iran, for example, travel to Germany. On the website of Visametric, which in cooperation with the German Embassy in Iran provides visa application services from the German Embassy to Iranian applicants, it is stated that this company is unable to provide services to applicants due to the internet outage until further notice.

Internet Outage and Impact on Health and Medical Sector

The health and medical sector has not been spared from the consequences of the internet outage either. One Twitter user writes from her experience visiting a private hospital in Tehran that there she was told due to internet outage: “We cannot accept social security.” This user further wrote that even her supplementary insurance was not accepted due to internet problems and she was told she had to “pay everything out of pocket.”

Approval of prescriptions for specific diseases is one of the services provided by insurance offices. According to writings by insurance companies in Iran, patients who benefit from these services previously formed medical documents files at medical document offices or contracted pharmacies for drug approval and by receiving a tracking code and forming a drug file could visit pharmacies and receive their medication. According to these writings, all pharmacies are equipped with a drug approval system. On social networks, some tweets indicate disruption in this network. Although in Deutsche Welle’s contact with several pharmacies in Tehran, this disruption was neither confirmed nor denied.

Internet-Based Businesses

Internet-based businesses or centers whose activities depend on the internet are also victims of this situation. Domestic news agencies write about “significant losses” that startups and small businesses that “in recent months have based their work in cyberspace” are suffering.

On the other hand, in browsing social networks, we come across pages of institutions that, for example, hold workshops in various fields and now with no access to the internet, their activities have been suspended.

Disruption in predicting the air quality of Tehran is another matter that should be added to the long list of damages from the internet outage. Hossein Shahidazadeh, CEO of Tehran Air Quality Control Company, in an interview with ISNA, pointing out that this organization “obtains part of its information from global websites and models for weather forecasting and air pollution prediction,” said: “Disruptions caused by the internet in the country have prevented us from accessing global information and as a result, we cannot upload predictions of air pollution for future days, wind gusts and rainfall amounts to our website.”

It is still unclear how long the complete internet outage in Iran will continue. Farsi News Agency reported that the internet in Iran is gradually connecting throughout the country. Net Blocks in its latest tweet writes about a small change it is observing in internet access; access after 113 hours of blackout. However, according to Net Blocks, it is still unclear whether this repair is permanent or not.