The Fourth Report on Internet Quality in Iran: From the Statistical Illusion of Speedtest to a 20-Fold Increase in Iranian Users Accessing Free Internet

1403/10/17 (January 6, 2025)

The fourth report on the quality of internet in Iran has been published by the Internet and Infrastructure Commission of the Tehran Electronic Commerce Association.

According to the Association’s Public Relations Office, expert assessments by the Commission indicate that Starlink internet usage in Iran has increased twentyfold over the past year. This means that:

• Iranian citizens, faced with slow, unstable, and highly restricted domestic internet, are willing to pay between USD 700 and USD 2,000 per month to obtain satellite internet access.

The fourth report also highlights the following findings:

• Due to the widespread use of free VPNs, Iranian smartphones have become a major source of network contamination, continuously reproducing network pollution.
• Iranian users have experienced various forms of internet disruption, both persistent and intermittent. The importance of these disruptions for Iranian businesses is such that, according to the Commission’s calculations, disruption of HTTP/3 alone causes daily losses equivalent to 2 billion tomans for a single startup.

All of this occurs while Iranian policymakers cite Speedtest data to demonstrate improvements in the country’s internet situation. However, expert analysis in the Winter 1403 edition of this report shows that:

• More than 70% of Speedtest data is based on users in Tehran and is largely related to fixed-line internet. As a result, many provinces have little or no data, or data from fewer than ten devices. This demonstrates that Speedtest cannot be considered a reliable reference for measuring Iran’s internet speed nationwide.

That said, among the positive technical steps taken by policymakers over the past six months are the removal of restrictions on communication tunnels such as GRE and IPsec, as well as resolving IPv6 disruptions, all of which represent significant technical progress.

Despite these steps, the overall quality of internet in Iran remains poor.

Still Among the Worst Internet Quality Worldwide

Compared to the previous report in Tir 1403 (July 2024), Iran’s internet quality has not changed significantly and remains in a critical condition. The continuation of restrictive domestic policies, unilateral foreign sanctions, and widespread problems in the access network have resulted in an internet user experience characterized by three main attributes:

• Slow speeds,
• High disruption (the second worst globally, after Myanmar and Ukraine),
• Severe restrictions (ranked 99th out of 100 countries, after China).

Overall, according to Google CrUX, Iran ranks 91st in internet quality, and based on OONI data, 99th out of 100. Aggregating these two indicators places Iran at 95th out of 100 countries.

Persistent Disruptions and Degraded User Experience

Regarding disruptions associated with slow2GDensity, which increased sharply after Shahrivar 1401 (September 2022), conditions have still not returned to previous levels.

To further clarify the user experience in Iran, the report compares the average 4G Density quality of two highly used services between:

• Iran and Turkey, and
• Iran and the UAE.

In the first comparison, 77% of Snapp and Tapsi users in Iran were able to access these services with 4G Density quality, while 92% of users in the UAE accessed their local ride-hailing service (Careem) at the same quality level.

In the second example, 81% of Iranian users accessed Digikala with 4G Density quality, whereas 97% of Turkish users accessed the comparable service, Trendyol, at the same level. A similar pattern was observed in the third report when Aparat in Iran was compared with YouTube in Turkey.

These findings clearly demonstrate the damaging impact of domestic internet restrictions on Iranian businesses and user experience.

More Than 30,000 Iranians Use Starlink

The fourth report estimates that over 30,000 satellite internet users are currently active in Iran, and this number continues to grow. With the expansion of next-generation satellite internet—particularly Direct-to-Cell (DTC) technology that connects mobile phones without separate receivers—traditional internet access restrictions are likely to become increasingly ineffective, posing serious challenges to restrictive policies.

Disruptions and VPN Pollution: Users’ Mobile Devices Treated as Botnets

The report identifies widespread filtering and the resulting mass adoption of free VPNs as one of the primary reasons behind the increase in DDoS attacks originating from Iran. Many citizens’ mobile phones, compromised through free VPN applications, are exploited by hackers and effectively turned into botnets.

Disruption Tests: All HTTP/3 Requests to International Destinations Blocked on Irancell

Technical tests show that on the Irancell network, all outbound HTTP/3 requests to international destinations are fully disrupted. On the MCI (Hamrah-e Aval) network, HTTP/3 requests to Cloudflare and Fastly experience intermittent disruptions but are occasionally accessible, while HTTP/3 requests to AWS are completely disrupted.

Economic Damage: Daily Losses of 2 Billion Tomans for a Startup

According to the fourth report, comparing HTTP/3 disruptions with HTTP/2 performance reveals that such disruptions impose daily losses of approximately 2 billion tomans on a single startup, amounting to 730 billion tomans annually.

Speed: Reliance on Speedtest Is a Statistical Illusion

To more accurately measure internet speed across Iran’s provinces, the report’s experts analyzed all quadkeys published by Ookla and converted them into precise geographic locations using latitude and longitude data. Each quadkey required data from at least ten devices over a three-month period.

The results show:

• A total of 106,000 devices in Q3 data,
• 74,000 devices (about 70%) located in Tehran,
• 46,000 data points from fixed internet,
• 27,000 data points from mobile internet.

Thus, many provinces lack sufficient data or have fewer than ten measured devices, confirming that Speedtest data cannot be reliably used to assess Iran’s nationwide internet speed.

Cloudflare: Slight Improvement in Bandwidth Over the Past Six Months

Unofficial reports indicate at least a 15% increase in international bandwidth in recent months following certain infrastructure adjustments. Cloudflare data shows that over the past six months, the average internet speed for Iranian users has increased slightly from 4.5 Mbps to 5.4 Mbps.

Outdated ADSL Technology: A Major Access-Layer Problem

Iran currently has over 9 million ADSL connections, of which:

• 70% operate below 10 Mbps,
• More than 30% operate below 6 Mbps.

Additionally, upload speeds are typically below 900 kbps due to the limitations of this obsolete technology. Consequently, one of the government’s top priorities should be the development of the access network and expansion of fiber-optic connectivity.

Restrictions: Iran Has the World’s Second Most Restricted Internet After China

Data from the fourth report indicates that Iran has the second most restricted internet in the world, after China. To reach this conclusion, experts analyzed 100 origin domains using OONI data. Domains with the broadest international coverage were selected as benchmarks.

The results show that as of Aban 1403 (November 2024), the number of domains experiencing filtering or more than 50% disruption has not changed significantly compared to the same period last year.

Commission Demands: Protecting Domestic Businesses Against Filtering

In the final section, the report states that due to repeated sudden blockages of business domains, the Internet Commission—after extensive consultations with legal advisors—has drafted a policy proposal aimed at holding the Committee for Determining Criminal Content accountable.

Key proposals include:

• An online inquiry system for blocked IPs and domains,
• A formal mechanism to request unblocking with a maximum 10-business-day response time,
• A platform for citizens to file objections regarding domain or IP blocking.

It is also proposed that for:

• Domestic platforms with over 100,000 registered users, or
• Foreign platforms with more than 1 million Iranian users (or daily peak traffic exceeding 100 Gbps),

any blocking order must receive case-by-case approval from the Supreme Council of Cyberspace.

This draft was submitted to the National Cyberspace Center in late Aban 1403 (November 2024). The Tehran Electronic Commerce Association has stated that it will continue pursuing this initiative on behalf of online businesses until a comprehensive and transparent framework is established.

Click here to view the Fourth Report on Internet Quality in Iran