Tehran partially restores Internet access after three months of outage – i24NEWS

Iran partially restored access to the Internet on Tuesday after nearly three months of almost total blackout, imposed since the start of the war triggered on February 28 by Israeli-American strikes.

According to the NGO NetBlocks, real-time data shows a partial restoration of connectivity after 2,093 hours of digital isolation, a record for a country.

Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref welcomed “the first step towards free and regulated access to cyberspace”, saying that the Iranians’ demands would gradually be met.

But on the ground, the return remains limited. Residents of Tehran have reported being able to access certain international sites, while the mobile connection remains cut. Access to social networks still requires the use of a VPN.

This decision comes as negotiations continue to end the war. President Massoud Pezeshkian ordered the restoration of the Internet on Monday, but his authority remains limited on this issue: the final decision depends on the Supreme National Security Council.

Since the start of the war, Iranians have been largely confined to the national intranet, which provides access only to local sites, banking services and state-approved applications.

This outage strongly affected economic sectors dependent on digital technology, in particular online commerce. Despite the partial recovery, experts believe that Iran remains far from its level of connectivity before the January protests and the outbreak of conflict.