Report Says Iran and US Reach Outline Ceasefire Deal After Latest Attacks

Iranians are cautiously returning online after a prolonged internet shutdown, but the restored service is reportedly slow, spotty, and heavily restricted. The monthslong outage, which began during nationwide protests in January, was justified by authorities as a military necessity following attacks on Iran. While access has partially resumed, many users fear it could be cut again at any moment.

Connectivity has returned to about 86% of pre-outage capacity, but internet traffic, a measure of usage, is only at 40%. Cybersecurity analysts note widespread disruptions persist, making it "too early to say the shutdown is over." The unprecedented internet blackout, one of the world's longest, severely impacted young professionals, leading to evaporated incomes and the closure of online businesses. It also crippled communication for families during months of unrest and war.

Residents described the difficulty of staying in touch with loved ones abroad and expressed surprise at the restoration of service. A taxi driver noted the service was weak, hoping for improvement to use messaging apps. Both spoke anonymously for security reasons. Internet prices spiked dramatically during the shutdown, with costs per gigabyte soaring before returning to pre-protest levels. However, even before the cutoff, access to popular social media was tightly controlled, forcing many to rely on expensive VPNs, the cost of which also skyrocketed.

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It's too early to say the shutdown is over.