Iran Decides to Restore Internet Service After Long Outage

SadaNews - Iranian President Masoud Bezhaskian has issued a decision to restore internet service after a disruption lasting nearly 90 days since the start of the American-Israeli war on Iran.

The Iranian news agencies "Tasnim" and "Fars" reported that President Bezhaskian "handed a decree to the Ministry of Communications to restore internet service to its state before last January."

It was unclear when or how Iran would reconnect to the global internet following this decision. Access to the internet remains severely restricted due to censorship imposed on many websites in ordinary circumstances.

The "NetBlocks" website, which specializes in monitoring internet outages, indicated that most Iranians have been unable to access the global internet for 87 days, with only a few citizens managing to access expensive advanced "VPN" networks to circumvent the restrictions.

Economic Losses

Iran suspended internet service during widespread protests that peaked at the beginning of January last year, and then internet service was cut off on February 28 with the onset of the American-Israeli war on Iran.

Since then, Iranians have only been able to access platforms and websites associated with the national network.

Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Star Hashemi, stated on January 26, 2026, that the daily losses caused by the outage to the Iranian economy amounted to approximately 34.5 million dollars.

Under the internet restrictions, Iranian authorities have permitted the use of what is known as the "White SIM Card," which provides limited access to international internet for specific categories, such as employees of foreign missions, diplomats, politicians, some journalists, and artistic personalities and celebrities.