Internet Starts to Return in Iran After 3-Month Blackout

Iran’s internet connectivity appears to be returning at very low levels after government-imposed blackouts lasting more than 2,000 hours. More than 90 million citizens have had internet access for most of 2026 largely cut off, including a blackout that began February 28 after attacks by Israel and the United States, and a prior shutdown enforced after January protests. Some Iranian networks began connecting to the global internet on Tuesday, with monitoring organizations documenting partial restoration. Researchers warn that access is far below the partial restoration allowed at the end of January and below Iran’s typical baseline connectivity from December 2025. Some providers are back online, but mobile networks show little change, while certain fixed-line providers, including fiber services near Tehran, show the biggest gains. Reconnection may be temporary.

"Though some Iranian networks appeared to be connecting to the global internet on Tuesday, researchers cautioned that the level of access was far below even the partial restoration that Tehran allowed at the end of January and throughout February-and it was drastically below Iran's typical baseline of global internet connectivity from December 2025. Internet monitoring experts at Kentik, NetBlocks, and Cloudflare began documenting the partial restoration of connectivity in Iran beginning in the early afternoon local time on Tuesday."

""We do see some traffic coming from Iran," says Amir Rashidi, a cybersecurity expert with the internet freedom organization Miaan Group. "Some providers have come back online, but it is still too early to say exactly what will happen. After the January protests, some providers were also reconnected, but around 50 percent of the country's traffic remained down.""

"Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at Kentik, says, "We're not seeing much change for the mobile networks." Instead, he says, some fixed-line providers have appeared to be restoring their services, with the Telecommunication Company of Iran's fiber-optic service around Tehran showing the "biggest gain.""

Read at WIRED