Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Starlink has reportedly waived monthly subscription payments for users inside Iran after its government shut down the internet on January 8 – cutting off millions of people from their families, livelihoods and access to information, during a deadly crackdown on protests.
The satellite technology has become a vital communications lifeline for some of those in the country trying to tell the outside world what has been happening on the ground in recent days.
Two people in Iran told BBC Persian their device was running on January 12 night even though they had not been keeping up with subscription payments. The director of an organisation that helps Iranians get online also told BBC Persian that Starlink had been made free.
The satellite technology, which belongs to Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, provides internet to tens of thousands of people in Iran, despite the fact it is illegal there. Since the internet was shut down, it has become one of the last, if not the last, remaining channels for Iranians to communicate with the outside world.
But the government is now hunting down those using Starlink service. Iran’s administration has also intensified efforts to jam the service.