A clandestine network of activists is smuggling Starlink satellite internet terminals into Iran, defying a government blackout that has plunged the country into digital darkness for more than two months and left ordinary citizens cut off from the outside world, says the BBC.
The shutdown, one of the longest national internet blackouts ever recorded, began on 28 February after the United States and Israel launched airstrikes.
It followed a previous blackout imposed in January during a deadly crackdown on nationwide protests, in which more than 6,500 people were killed and 53,000 arrested, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Sahand — not his real name — is one of three people who spoke to the BBC about their involvement in smuggling operations. Speaking from outside Iran, he said he had sent a dozen terminals into the country since January through what he described as a “very complex operation” across the borders.
The effort is funded entirely by Iranians abroad, he said, with no state backing. “People need internet to be able to share what’s happening on the ground,” he said. “The Iranian regime has proven that during a shutdown, they can kill.”
The white, flat Starlink terminals — manufactured by Elon Musk’s SpaceX — connect users to a network of satellites, bypassing Iran’s heavily controlled domestic infrastructure entirely.
Several users can share a single terminal simultaneously. The human rights organisation Witness estimated in January that at least 50,000 devices were already inside the country, a figure activists say has since grown.
Iran passed legislation last year making the use, purchase or sale of a Starlink terminal punishable by up to two years in prison. Importing or distributing more than ten devices carries a sentence of up to ten years.
State media has reported numerous arrests, including four people detained last month — two of them foreign nationals — for importing satellite internet equipment.
An American-Iranian woman told the BBC that a male family member had been arrested and accused of espionage simply for possessing a terminal.
A digital rights group, which asked not to be named, estimated that at least 100 people have been arrested for possession of the devices.
Despite this, a public Persian-language Telegram channel called NasNet continues to operate, with a volunteer saying approximately 5,000 terminals had been sold through it over the past two and a half years.
Iran’s internet operates as a tiered system. All citizens access a state-controlled domestic network; before the blackouts, the global internet was also available, though heavily filtered.
Now, only select officials and state media journalists retain full access via so-called “white sim cards.” The government has acknowledged the economic damage, with one minister estimating the blackout costs the economy at least 50 trillion rials — roughly £28 million — per day.
Activists argue the blackout serves a darker purpose. During the January protests, evidence of extrajudicial killings and arrests still emerged, much of it believed to have been shared via Starlink. Digital rights group Access Now recorded 313 internet shutdowns across 52 countries in 2025, the highest figure since it began tracking them in 2016.
Sahand says those involved understand the dangers. “It’s a fight,” he said, “and we feel somehow we have to intervene and help.”
