“If just one more person can access the net, I think it is already a success and worth it,” says Sahand.
The visibly nervous Iranian speaks to the BBC from outside Iran as he cautiously explains how he is part of an underground network that smuggles in satellite internet technology, which is illegal in Iran.
Sahand, whose name we have changed, fears for his family and other contacts within the country. “If the Iranian regime identified me, they could make those in contact with me in Iran pay the consequences,” he says.
For more than two months, Iran has been plunged into digital darkness, as the Government maintains one of the longest nationwide Internet outages ever recorded anywhere in the world.
The current blockade began after the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on February 28. Before that, Internet access had been partially restored for just a month following an earlier outage in January, imposed during a bloody regime crackdown on nationwide protests that left more than 6,500 protesters killed and 53,000 detained, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Officials say the government cut off the Internet during the war for security reasons, suggesting the goal is to prevent surveillance, espionage and cyberattacks.
More blockages more leaks
The Starlink devices that Sahand sends to Iran are one of the most reliable ways to bypass the blockade. These flat white terminals, combined with routers, provide Internet access by connecting to a satellite network owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, allowing users to completely bypass Iran’s tightly controlled national Internet network.
According to Sahand, multiple people can connect to each terminal at the same time.
The interviewee states that he and other members of the network buy them and “smuggle them across the borders” in a “very complex operation,” of which he refuses to give details.
Sahand says he has sent a dozen pieces of equipment to Iran since January and that “we are actively looking for more ways to smuggle them.”
The human rights organization Gape estimated in January that there are at least 50,000 Starlink terminals in Iran. Activists say the number is likely to have increased. The BBC contacted SpaceX for more details about the use of Starlink in the country, but did not receive a response.
Last year, the Iranian government passed a law punishing the use, purchase or sale of Starlink devices with sentences of up to two years in prison. The prison sentence for distributing or importing more than 10 devices can be up to 10 years.
State-affiliated media have reported multiple cases of people detained for selling and buying Starlink terminals, including four people—two of them foreign nationals—arrested last month for “importing satellite net equipment.”
Some of the arrests are also reported to be related to accusations of possessing illegal weapons and sending information to the enemy.
However, there remains a market for these terminals in Iran, among others through a Persian-language Telegram channel called NasNet.
A volunteer linked to the channel who lives outside Iran told the BBC that, in the last two and a half years, approximately 5,000 Starlink terminals have been sold through it.
Iran has a long history of disrupting information, both by spreading its own anti-American and anti-Israel narratives through state media and by restricting information about the repressive measures used by the regime against its critics.
However, during the January protests, even with the Internet blocked, reports and video evidence of extrajudicial executions, arrests and beatings were leaked. Human rights organizations know or believe that much of this information comes from people who access social networks through Starlink.
The current Internet setup in Iran has been described as a “tiered system.”
All Iranians have access to a state-controlled national network on which services such as banking, transport services and food delivery, as well as state media, operate.
Before the outages, Iranians could also access the Internet globally. However, many sites and services such as Instagram, Telegram, YouTube and WhatsApp were blocked, and the government set access prices higher than those of the national network.
Many Iranians circumvented the restrictions by using virtual private networks (VPNs), which connect users to websites through remote servers, thus hiding their location. Subscriptions to these services also drove up costs.
Now, due to the blockade, only a few officials and others, including journalists working for state media, have unrestricted access to the Internet using so-called “white SIM cards.”
No support from foreign governments
In 2022, Musk announced that he would activate Starlink in Iran after the serious internet interruptions recorded during the wave of protests triggered by the death in custody of the young Mahsa Amini.
Since then, its use has grown, especially during connection outages.
Now, with authorities increasingly determined to locate Starlink terminals, Sahand and his network are advising users to use VPNs alongside satellite technology to maintain anonymity. But many people cannot afford it, especially in times of economic crisis.
Sahand is one of three people the BBC has spoken to who claim to be involved in smuggling Starlink devices.
He claims that the operation he is involved in, including the purchase of the terminals, is financed by Iranians abroad and other people who want to help those in the country. They assure that they do not receive funds from any foreign State.
The terminals are sent to people who they believe will use them to share information internationally.
“People need the net to be able to share what is happening on the ground,” says Sahand.
“We believe that these terminals should be in the hands of those who really need them to drive change,” he adds.
A worrying trend
A digital rights organization, which asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC that it estimates that at least 100 people have been arrested for possession of these terminals.
Sahand admits that he also knows people who have been arrested for accessing or possessing one of these devices, although none of them acquired it through him.
Yasmin, an Iranian-American whose name we have also changed, told the BBC that a male member of her family was detained in Iran and charged with espionage for possessing a Starlink terminal.
The BBC asked the Iranian embassy in London why only a few people in the country are allowed access to the Internet and why the sanctions for using Starlink are so severe, but no response was received.
However, the Iranian government has admitted that the blockade has severely affected some businesses, with a minister claiming in January that each day of the internet blockade cost the economy at least 50 trillion rials ($35 million).
The authorities have recently launched a program called “Internet Pro”, which allows certain companies some access to the world wide web.
A man who works for a company in Iran has told the BBC that he has been granted access through this initiative.
Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said the intention was to “maintain business connectivity during the crisis.” He also assured that the government was “strongly opposed to injustice in communications” and that, once the situation returned to normal, “the net situation would also change.”
“Communications blackouts are a clear violation of human rights and can never be justified,” Marwa Fatafta, director of regional policy and advocacy at Rating correct of entry to Now, a digital rights group, told the BBC World Service, ahead of World Press Freedom Day, which is celebrated every May 3.
The activist assured that internet outages are becoming a “new norm.” According to Rating correct entry to Now, in 2025 there were 313 of them in 52 countries, the highest number worldwide since the organization began recording them in 2016.
Citizens of Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Russia and Iran suffered the highest number of internet outages last year, according to the digital rights group.
The executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights, Roya Boroumand, says that the information vacuum in Iran “allows the state to spread its narrative, presenting protesters as violent actors or foreign agents, while their victims, including those sentenced to death, and well-informed sources are silenced.”
This is one of Sahand’s main motivations.
“The Iranian regime has shown that, during an Internet outage, it is capable of killing,” he says.
“It is of vital importance that the Iranians can show the real image of the situation on the ground,” he points out.
Sahand assures that those who volunteer to help in the illegal trafficking of equipment “are aware of the risk.” But he adds that “it is a struggle” and that “we feel that, in some way, we have to intervene and help.”
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