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A mobile screen in Iran shows a “No Internet Connection” error
Three-minute read
For ordinary Iranians, daily life in August 2025 is a frustrating gauntlet of digital failures. A simple bank transfer times out. The fare for a ride-sharing app triples without warning. A crucial video call to family abroad drops repeatedly. These are not isolated technical glitches; they are the direct and predictable outcomes of the Iranian regime’s policies, which are waging a two-front war on the nation’s connectivity.
On one front, a deliberate misallocation of national wealth has left Iran’s digital infrastructure in a state of collapse. On the other, a deep-seated paranoia has prompted the regime to actively sabotage essential services like GPS. Together, these actions reveal a government that consistently prioritizes its own security and ideological ambitions over the fundamental needs of its citizens.
A Network Starved by Neglect
The frequent internet blackouts plaguing Iran are a clear symptom of systemic decay. As national resources are funneled into the regime’s nuclear and missile programs and its network of regional proxies, domestic infrastructure has been left to rot. Reports from state-run media confirm that aging batteries in telecommunication towers are failing during the country’s increasingly common power outages, severing internet access for millions.
#Iran News: Regime Demands 70% Internet Tariff Hike as Blackout Warning Loomshttps://t.co/7YTCRnq5Dv
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 18, 2025
This engineered collapse paralyzes daily life. Basic online banking has become unreliable, emergency services are harder to reach, and virtual education is disrupted. The regime’s Communications Minister, Sattar Hashemi, acknowledged the problem but downplayed its severity, stating that the tower batteries were not designed for the prolonged power “imbalance”—a state euphemism for chronic shortages. He offered no viable solution.
With the government abdicating its responsibility, state-affiliated telecommunication operators are now blackmailing the public. On August 20, Alireza Rafiei, the CEO of Irancell, issued a stark ultimatum: either the public accepts a 70% tariff increase, or they should expect three-hour daily internet shutdowns, similar to the scheduled power cuts. The burden of the regime’s financial mismanagement is, once again, being placed squarely on the shoulders of the Iranian people.
A Regime at War with Its Own Services
Beyond passive neglect, the regime is now actively sabotaging its own digital ecosystem. On August 20, Hashemi officially admitted that the widespread GPS disruptions tormenting the country are intentional. He claimed the signal jamming was implemented due to “security considerations” and the need to counter potential drone threats. This confession came only after years of official denials and blame-shifting, exposing a pattern of systemic deception.
Report Shows 94% of #Iranian Youth Defy Regime’s #Internet Iron Curtainhttps://t.co/jZrFLyM8bz
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 9, 2025
The real-world consequences have been immediate and severe. Ride-sharing services like Snapp, a vital part of the urban economy, have seen fares skyrocket. Farid Shahabi, a commercial VP at Snapp, explained that the combination of GPS failures—which cause drivers to abandon the platform—and a surge in demand has led to a natural price explosion. Users report their locations on maps appearing hundreds of kilometers away, making navigation impossible and crippling the livelihoods of countless drivers. This is not a defensive security measure; it is an act of holding the civilian population hostage to the regime’s security obsessions.
Replacing Disruption with Control
The regime’s proposed “solution” to the GPS crisis further reveals its priorities. Instead of restoring a universally accessible service for its citizens, Tehran is planning to deepen its reliance on China by replacing the American GPS with BeiDou.
Officials have been open about the military logic behind this pivot. Deputy Communications Minister Ehsan Chitsaz confirmed the plan, and experts assess the move as part of the regime’s “asymmetric warfare” strategy, aimed at making its missile systems and other military hardware independent of Western technology. The cooperation with China on BeiDou is not a new development; it stems from a memorandum of understanding signed as far back as 2015. This long-term strategic alignment underscores that the regime’s calculations are entirely military-focused, with no regard for the millions of civilians who depend on these technologies for their economic survival.
Iran’s new internet crackdown bill reveals regime’s terror of a restive society and organized resistance https://t.co/NBWnXMQ7Xf
— People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) July 30, 2025
A Self-Imposed Siege
The twin crises of crumbling infrastructure and deliberate digital sabotage are two sides of the same coin. They expose a regime that is both profoundly incompetent in governing and ruthlessly oppressive in its priorities. By starving the people of essential services while actively disrupting what remains, the regime is effectively placing its own nation under a self-imposed digital siege.
For the people of Iran, the message is unambiguous: their livelihoods, their connection to the world, and their daily stability are all expendable in the regime’s quest to protect itself and advance its destructive ideology. The deepening crisis in connectivity is not merely a policy failure to be corrected; it is a fundamental flaw embedded in the very structure of the ruling theocracy.