Report of the Tehran Electronic Commerce Association: Iran is the champion of Internet restrictions, disruptions and slowness

Tehran Electronic Commerce Association In an analytical report, he analyzed the disturbances, limitations and speed of the internet in Iran, the results of which, although expected, are shocking.

This report considers the low quality of the internet due to restrictions, disruptions and low speed and concluded that among the 100 countries in the world with the highest gross national product, Iran has the second most disturbed internet after Myanmar, the second limited internet in the world after China, and is among the 5 Internet is slow in the world. According to the association’s report, the current conditions of quality and permanent disturbances in Iran have gradually occurred over the past two years due to the new filtering policies in Iran.

Disruption means the loss of part of the information in an Internet connection, and it is the most important reason that causes normal users to have a bad experience using the Internet and online services in general without realizing why.

The limitation of internet domain and IP filtering is one of the main reasons for the inefficiency of the internet in a geographical area, and speed means high bandwidth and low delay in loading a website or internet content.

The investigations of this report show that widespread and permanent disruptions on almost all IPs and websites around the world is the main problem of the Internet in Iran. Websites and addresses are divided into three categories, and other than those that are recognized as authorized, the rest of the domains and IPs are either filtered and blacklisted or graylisted, which are intentionally disrupted. These domains and IPs cover almost the entire Internet.

Investigations of this report in 100 different countries show that the governance equipment by causing intentional disruption cause up to 50% of the data sent to these destinations, i.e. gray list domains and IPs, to face problems. This issue is the main noticeable and strongly objected reason for users to use the Internet these days. Also, by examining 300 websites in the top 50 countries in the world in terms of GDP, it was found that Iran is at the top of the world’s most disturbed table with 33.3% filtering and 18% disruption.

In the survey conducted among the top 100 websites in the world, more than 33% of them are filtered in Iran. Also, based on two samplings with 100 and 300 different websites in 100 countries of the world, Iran has the world’s most limited internet after China with 50% filtered websites and 45% filtering of websites. Egypt, Russia and Oman have the third to fifth limited internet in the world.

Also, according to this report, filtering in Iran is rampant, without reason and in many cases without legal support. Iran, China and Turkmenistan are the only countries among the top 100 countries in the world that have blocked all 6 of the world’s most used social networks.

The average internet speed in Iran is 4 mbps with an average delay of 145 ms, which ranks 97 out of 100 in speed and 96 out of 100 in delay in the world, and only Sudan, Cameroon and Cuba have a worse situation than Iran in terms of speed. Meanwhile, Asian countries that have high economic growth and growth in technological indicators are much better than Iran in terms of speed. In Turkey the average speed is 12, in Malaysia the average speed is 22, in the UAE the average is 26 and in South Korea the average is 60.

This report considers the main reasons for the slow internet speed in Iran to be the weak and inefficient performance of the telecommunications company, the decrease in investment in the telecom infrastructure sector, the slow development of 5G and optical fiber, and finally the weak and inefficient performance of the infrastructure communication company. The important thing is that without any changes in the access and communication layer and only by making corrections in the core layer, mobile internet speed can be increased up to 8 times and fixed internet up to 3 times.

This report says that Iran is the champion of low-quality internet in the world, and even in Myanmar, with the most internet disruption, only 1% of websites are filtered, and the average speed is twice that of Iran, and the average delay is much less than Iran.

Bing, Google, Reuters, LinkedIn, New York Times, etc. can be mentioned among the websites that have been disrupted in Iran. Extensive disruptions are also confirmed by case studies in different data centers. This report says that there is a deliberate disruption of all IPs and communications in the country’s network under the pretext of dealing with VPN. Except for the sites that are on the white list either due to the sensitivity of public opinion or for business reasons, the rest of the sites are intentionally disrupted.

Another important problem caused by this disruption is that it causes the traffic exchanged with servers abroad to double on average and also doubles the user’s Internet consumption: “If transparent information was released from international ports, we could accurately say that people Iran is paying thousands of billions of tomans per month in fines for their sins and the disorder that has been illegally imposed on them.

These disturbances were investigated on the Internet of Irancell and Mobile First, and according to this report, Mobile First and Irancell installed filtering equipment and installed it inside their network, while benefiting from a 10-15% discount from the Regulatory Organization, causing the disruptions to intensify and causing damage. to domestic network and inter-operator traffic. First Companion uses the filtering equipment of Yaftar company and Irancell of Doran company, and this causes their behavior and policies to be different.

This report writes: “Finally, it seems that despite all the investments made in the field of smart filtering, none of the contractors had the technology to detect https-based proxies, and to compensate for this, the infrastructure communication company caused widespread disruptions in the network’s layer 4 in an illegal action. Is.”

Regarding the quality of the Internet, the Ministry of Communications has repeatedly said that it is not responsible, and the Minister of Communications has not heard many complaints, especially regarding filtering and interference.

According to this report, the responsibility of the biggest crisis of Iran’s Internet, i.e. widespread disruptions, lies entirely with the Ministry of Communications, the Infrastructure Communications Company and finally the Network Security and Security Committee as the ones responsible for the implementation of filtering.

Some restrictions, including filtering, were ordered by the prosecutor’s office, some by the criminal cases work group, and some by the order of the country’s security council. But a large number of disruptions and filters have taken place without any order or law and only with the pressure of security institutions. Also, the disruption in the clubhouse at the end of the previous period by the Ministry of Communications was illegally carried out by Irancell, First Mobile and Telecommunications, which caused them to be sued and fined 50 billion by the government, although it was unsuccessful due to the intervention of security institutions. Tradez was also filtered from the beginning without the approval of any legal institution in Iran.

The responsibility for slow internet speed lies with the telecommunication company, the issue of fiber optic and 5G development and the infrastructure company. Telecom monopoly with poor quality service, outdated ADSL technology and anti-competitive behavior and low quality have caused the Internet speed in Iran to not improve.

The delay in the development of optical fiber is also related to the issue of widespread disruptions and restrictions, which has caused a severe stagnation of the digital economy and, as a result, slowed down investment in telecom infrastructure.

In addition to the inefficiency and low productivity, the monopoly of the infrastructure communication company in providing and distributing the internet has caused the price of the internet to rise in the country. This company sells internet to internet distribution companies in Iran at 60 times the price of internet in Europe, does not give a clear report of internet routes and capacities in the country, and does not accept responsibility for disruption and low speed.

In general, the government does not consider itself responsible in the field of internet quality. Since the beginning of the new term of the Ministry of Communications, no detailed report has been published on the country’s broadband capacity, the amount of consumption and its increase or decrease. There is no clear mechanism regarding the functioning of filtering, and the internet.ir system was no longer available after a hacker attack in November 1401, and as a result, there is no mechanism to protest and follow up and review filtering. However, at the same time, the majority of requests and objections to this system remain fruitless.