How common are internet outages in Iran?published at 13:39 GMT
Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian
This is not the first time the Iranian authorities have cut off the internet in the country.
Previous instances include the 2019 fuel price protests, the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests – during which restrictions were applied intermittently – and the 12-day Iran-Israel conflict in June.
Alp Toker, Director at NetBlocks, tells the BBC that they have “racked successive blackouts over several years as Iran’s authorities fine-tuned their censorship mechanisms”.
Toker says that “what once involved networks being taken down individually has now become an instant, centralised process. So the idea of an internet ‘kill switch’ is no longer figurative”.
In those earlier cases, overall connectivity was reportedly higher, with some phone services and limited VPN access remaining available to segments of the population.
“By the time of the 2025 Israel-Iran war blackout and thereafter, shutdowns had become faster and more comprehensive, with even standard phone calls disabled. These kinds of outages are no longer exceptional events but part of how connectivity is routinely managed in Iran”, Toker says.
In 2019 and June 2025, connectivity dropped to approximately 4-5% and 3% respectively.
Unlike those periods, the present blackout has shown no significant fluctuations or temporary restorations of access.