Smuggled Starlink Terminals are Beating Iran's Internet Blackout 23
An anonymous reader shared this report from the BBC:
"If even one extra person is able to access the internet, I think it's successful and it's worth it," says Sahand. The Iranian man is visibly anxious, speaking to the BBC outside Iran, as he carefully explains how he is part of a clandestine network smuggling satellite internet technology — which is illegal in Iran — into the country. Sahand, whose name we have changed, fears for family members and other contacts inside the country. "If I was identified by the Iranian regime, they might make those I'm in touch with in Iran pay the price," he says.
For more than two months, Iran has been in digital darkness as the government maintains one of the longest-running national internet shutdowns ever recorded worldwide... Sahand says he has sent a dozen [Starlink terminals] to Iran since January and "we are actively looking for other ways to smuggle in more". The human rights organisation Witness estimated in January that there are at least 50,000 Starlink terminals in Iran. Activists say the number is likely to have risen...
Last year, the Iranian government passed legislation that made using, buying or selling Starlink devices punishable by up to two years in prison. The jail term for distributing or importing more than 10 devices can be up to 10 years. State-affiliated media has reported multiple cases of people being arrested for selling and buying Starlink terminals, including four people — two of them foreign nationals — arrested last month for "importing satellite internet equipment".
"The BBC contacted SpaceX for more details about the use of Starlink in the country but did not receive a response."
For more than two months, Iran has been in digital darkness as the government maintains one of the longest-running national internet shutdowns ever recorded worldwide... Sahand says he has sent a dozen [Starlink terminals] to Iran since January and "we are actively looking for other ways to smuggle in more". The human rights organisation Witness estimated in January that there are at least 50,000 Starlink terminals in Iran. Activists say the number is likely to have risen...
Last year, the Iranian government passed legislation that made using, buying or selling Starlink devices punishable by up to two years in prison. The jail term for distributing or importing more than 10 devices can be up to 10 years. State-affiliated media has reported multiple cases of people being arrested for selling and buying Starlink terminals, including four people — two of them foreign nationals — arrested last month for "importing satellite internet equipment".
"The BBC contacted SpaceX for more details about the use of Starlink in the country but did not receive a response."
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Yeah, this article is too cute by half.
Per reports SpaceX has been arming Ukraine with terminals for several years so Russia has put a lot of engineering into detecting, characterizing, and targeting the signals. They've provided this technology to Iran.
Trump recently bragged about CIA providing automatic weapons to the "protesters" ahead of the "protests" (over Bessent's currency war) which Iran shut down using the SL detectors.
Allegedly large shipments of terminals by Mossad were interdicted and those age
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How condescending of you.
Can you maybe imagine that people in Iran are aware of the risks?
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The other risk is that both Russia and Iran have the ability to get stuff to orbit, and Russia has demonstrated the ability to hit satellites. If the terminals were not giving them useful into on the enemy, they might decide that Starlink is a threat and start shooting those birds down. The debris will quickly make LEO a dangerous place for at least a few years, probably longer.
Re:Should be easy to find the users (Score:4, Informative)
Per reports SpaceX has been arming Ukraine with terminals for several years so Russia has put a lot of engineering into detecting, characterizing, and targeting the signals. They've provided this technology to Iran.
There was a guide for authorities circulating in Persian with details of using WiFi broadcasts to detect Starlink terminals. There is probably a lot of low hanging fruit finding people by not using Ethernet /w bypass mode in the starlink terminals.
Until recently (Thanks to SpaceX IPO) 3/4 of Starlink use in Ukraine was by Russians.
As /w Ukraine when used competently the terminals are not so easy to find.
https://www.skylinker.io/p/can... [skylinker.io]
Trump recently bragged about CIA providing automatic weapons to the "protesters" ahead of the "protests" (over Bessent's currency war) which Iran shut down using the SL detectors.
The comments I remember were related to Kurds in Iraq not sharing their US supplied stashes with Iranians.
Allegedly large shipments of terminals by Mossad were interdicted and those agents were hanged.
Yea everything is CIA and Mossad.
These spooks are willing to "fight to the last Iranian". Glorifying this is complicity in their entrapment.
Gotta love the rhetorical framing. Giving people something they want is now entrapment.
There are much better ways to freedomtech than broadcasting a beacon unless a rapid color revolution is the goal.
Satellite TV has the receive side broadcast mostly covered. For transmit you either need to send RF or operate some form of network internally. There are no risk free options and Starlink is not an unreasonable solution when used competently.
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Yeah, these shouldn't be hard for the IRGC to hunt down. Starlink is basically just a fancy Ku band radio transmitter.
Detector Drones (Score:2)
If the Ku band transmissions from Starlink terminals are frequent enough, the IRGC could put a small Ku band receiver on a few drones and fly them over a large city in a grid pattern repeatedly to find the terminals.
The only way to combat this is to have a spread spectrum emission designed to communicate over a wide bandwidth which appears to be below the noise floor at narrower bandwidths.
also getting a beating (Score:2)
(anyone that isn't "elite")
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an you grok the parallels in American culture, seeing why personal gun ownership is so important ?
Tell me, how successful are armed Americans at beating SWAT units sent to get them? You probably share the typical American view that "the government should be afraid of the people". It might have worked a century or two in the past, when outlaws were playing level with the Sheriff. Right now, personal gun ownership in the context of a rebellion equates to suicide by police.
See ... (Score:1)
.... that's what real "fascism" looks like.
as he carefully explains how he is part of a clandestine network smuggling satellite internet technology — which is illegal in Iran — into the country
It doesn't just mean "me unhappy that other political parties exist and occasionally win".
Getting caught with one can mean death (Score:1)
> The UNâ(TM)s top human rights official warned on Wednesday that Iraniansâ(TM) rights are being eroded in âoeharsh and brutal ways,â citing a surge in executions, mass arrests and alleged abuses amid a widening crackdown on dissent
https://news.un.org/en/story/2... [un.org]
Iran is not the innocent place the media portrays it as.
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Iran is not the innocent place the media portrays it as.
I'm not aware of anyone portraying Iran as an innocent place. The claims I'm seeing are about having Israel invade other countries with American support not being beneficial in the short or long term.
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The claims I'm seeing are about having Israel invade other countries with American support not being beneficial in the short or long term.
This is an extremely worrisome point. Trump is walking a narrow line, and he is not known for competence.
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Wait can someone remind we, are we pro-World Police now or anti-World Police now?
Or does this opinion for conservatives literally depend on what mood Trump is in today?
"No New Wars! (unless my polling dips below a threshold)"
This is an astonishingly bad idea (Score:2)
That's all she wrote... (Score:2)
The end state probably isn't any single technology defeating state censorship. It's the cumulative weight of microSDs, Starlink terminals, VPNs, mesh radios, and eventual low-cost cubesats making comprehensive control economically and logistically unsustainable. The cost of enforcement keeps rising; the cost of circumvention keeps falling. That's a losing trajectory for the censors.