Reconnected? Iranians say only 'drip-feed' internet has returned after three-month shutdown
After almost three months of being cut off from the world, internet access was partially restored in Iran starting on Tuesday. While some rejoice at finally being reconnected and able to check in on their loved ones, many complain about the persistent slowness in connectivity and doubt a complete restoration will happen any time soon.
Issued on: 28/05/2026 - 17:22
4 min Reading time Share By: Bahar MAKOOI
Mina* was overjoyed as she waited for the big moment on Tuesday when she might be reconnected to the world beyond Iran. “It might sound ridiculous, but I sat glued to my screen for hours waiting for it to come back. For me, being connected is essential,” says the freelance graphic designer, who works on advertising and social media promotions in Tehran. “I need to use AI every day and stay up to date on the latest tools; I watch a lot of YouTube tutorials … I need a real connection.”
After the Iranian regime imposed an almost total internet blackout for nearly three months after the US launched strikes on February 28, Iranians had access only to the national intranet, a local network allowing them to visit Iranian websites, use banking services or access state-approved apps.
The NetBlocks NGO confirmed the partial – at 60 percent – restoration of internet access on Tuesday evening.
“Welcome back, Iran!” the digital monitoring organisation enthusiastically announced on X.
“Metrics show a further rise in connectivity as mobile networks and other segments are reconnected to the global internet: Filternet remains in place but can be worked around. WhatsApp now restricted, requiring circumvention. Some users still offline,” it noted.
Digital Reunions
But by the next day, the initial enthusiasm has already given way to frustration. “Many websites are still inaccessible and apps aren't loading properly; it's still very slow where I live,” Mina laments. “I'm going to have to keep spending crazy amounts of money on data plans and VPNs that actually work.”
Data costs her a fortune. She says she has spent nearly 200 million rials (€130) in a month – a luxury that many cannot afford in a country where the average monthly salary is around €170 and the minimum wage hovers around €85 a month. Even then, she sighs, “It’s slow, very slow … You have to be patient before you can watch a YouTube video.”
Despite ongoing restrictions, the partial restoration of internet service has allowed many families to reconnect. “I was able to reach my sister for the first time; I hadn’t heard her voice since February 28,” said one Franco-Iranian woman living in Paris. "She’s over 80, and every moment with her is precious. We talked for a long time. Our hearts were heavy, but it warmed our hearts."
Renowned Iranian journalist Elahe Mohammadi described the flood of digital reunions in a post on X. "One by one, we’re reconnecting with our old network and leaving messages for each other. One holds back tears, another rushes to their parents’ house to connect their phone to the internet, yet another can’t believe we’ve endured all this, and another sends us a big ‘Bravo’, hats off to everyone,” she wrote.
“This humiliating life was not what we deserve,” she added.
‘Drip-feed’ internet
Without access to the global internet, the regime-restricted Iranian version has crept ever more insidiously into daily life, Mina explains. “Local websites work – banks, e-commerce sites, and apps like Snapp! (the Iranian equivalent of Uber) or Divar (the Iranian equivalent of Craigslist),” she says.
“And I see few people engaging in ‘resistance’. Many use new Iranian messaging apps like Bale Messenger or Rubika without much caution. It’s starting to become the norm – we haven’t had any other choice.”
Kaveh*, on the other hand, has refused to install these homegrown apps. He managed to reconnect to Telegram, but WhatsApp only works at his home with a VPN. He is “tired of having to fight constantly for the bare minimum”, he says. “Frankly, the situation is just not normal. I’m really frustrated that we still have such slow access, which is constantly interrupted, after all this time. In Persian, we call it ‘drip-feed’ internet. I work remotely, so it was really difficult without the internet.”
For both Mina and Kaveh, spending months offline has had direct economic consequences: an inability to fulfill orders, a loss of customers and a sudden halt to new contracts. The Iranian authorities had already cut access to the global network during January protests, which were brutally suppressed. Internet access was then only partially restored before being suspended again in February with the start of the war.
But the partial return of internet service this week appears to be shrouded in political uncertainty. President Masoud Pezeshkian, considered a moderate, ordered the gradual restoration of internet access on Monday. But this conciliatory gesture was undermined the next day when the Iranian judiciary announced the suspension of the measure following “complaints filed” by the Special Headquarters for the Organisation and Governance of National Cyberspace, a body created on May 12 by the president himself.
Pezeshkian does not have final authority on this matter; the decision rests with the Supreme National Security Council, led by a hardliner, noted conservative lawmaker Yaghoub Rezazadeh.
‘We have learned to endure’
The outages have also severely impacted sectors dependent on digital technology, particularly high-tech industries and e-commerce.
Deputy Minister of Labour Gholamhossein Mohammadi warned on April 19 that more than a million jobs had been lost since the start of the war, and that more than 2 million people had lost their sources of income.
Independent experts, however, cite even more alarming figures. Several Iranian specialists estimate that more than 20 million Iranians (more than one in four) derive their income from the internet and that the network outage has cost approximately $80 million per day.
In recent weeks, several middle-class Iranians have told the FRANCE 24 Observers editorial team that they fear they will no longer be able to afford food if the situation persists.
One fashion influencer on Instagram, who has been silent for seven months, posted a story on Wednesday simply showing Tehran under a calm blue sky, accompanied by a single sentence: “Beneath the mountains of Tehran, we have learned to endure…”.
* Names have been changed
This article has been translated from the original in French.
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