Iran’s Dark and Booming Internet Market: A Tale of Foreign SIM Cards and Multi-Million Toman Proxies
In days where access to the global internet network faces severe restrictions, a black market has emerged in Iran where internet data volume is worth its weight in gold. Reports indicate that with the reduction of tradable internet volume, prices have skyrocketed, and no fixed rate exists. To access the free world, users are enduring everything from paying costs in dollars to traveling to border regions.
Astronomical Prices for a Ray of Light
The urgent need for internet access has caused the market for dealers and unofficial sellers to thrive. In this black market, requests for even a 10MB configuration meet with bizarre prices. Some proxy vendors demand cryptocurrency to provide their services. One of the most “economical” offers in this chaotic market is a 10GB configuration priced at $15, which must be paid via crypto.
Technical investigations reveal that the source of these configurations is not necessarily satellite-based. IP ranges from certain domestic data centers and service providers, which still maintain access to the international internet, have found their way into the black market. The price of these specific configurations is sometimes traded for up to 15 million Tomans. However, with continued outages and rising fraud, the market has cooled slightly from its initial fever, and users have become distrustful of purchasing these services.
Temporary Migration to Borders for a Signal
On the other side of the story, a more traditional method for connecting to the internet is underway: traveling to border zero points. It may seem strange, but there are citizens willing to pay exit taxes and insurance fees just to check their emails and attend to their businesses a few meters beyond the barbed wire.
Taxi drivers on routes leading to borders, including the Razi and Khoy crossings, share interesting accounts. They report seeing many travelers who bear the travel costs solely for a one-night stay in Van, Turkey, or even to stand in the transit hall to use Iraqi SIM cards.
Neighboring SIM Cards: Today’s Luxury Commodity
In border cities like Marivan, the objective of travelers crossing the Bashmaq border has shifted. If the goal was previously leisure, the primary objective is now internet access. Route drivers say that in addition to exit taxes, passengers pay amounts for insurance to acquire Iraqi SIM cards across the border to conduct their vital affairs.
The value of these SIM cards has surged drastically. Reports indicate that Iraqi SIM cards provide signal coverage not only in border cities but also in cities further away, such as Bushehr, and are being bought and sold at incredible prices reaching 30 million Tomans. For merchants and those whose businesses depend on the internet, paying these sums has economic justification.
Gatherings at Border Points and Generosity Amidst Crisis
The situation is similar across various borders of the country. In Baneh and other border points, gatherings of up to 200 people sometimes form, hoping mobile phones can connect to the towers of neighboring countries via roaming. Any point with stronger signal reception from the adjacent country plays host to “internet travelers.”
A similar story flows along the eastern borders and Afghanistan. There is an account of a truck driver from Herat who, at the Dogharoun border, made his iPhone available to people so they could perform their urgent tasks via hotspot. Although the internet speed in these conditions is very low—and tasks that took seconds now take minutes—even this unstable connection is considered a prize.
Fraud and Distrust: The Flip Side of Filtering
In VPN and proxy sales groups, the first question from newcomers is: “How are you connected?” Distrust is rampant, and everyone is worried that there might be a solution they are unaware of. Amidst this chaotic marketplace, the sale of low-quality proxies and fraud, or “scams,” has increased significantly.
Some network experts believe that many of these proxies are sourced through domestic data centers. Opportunistic individuals sell special access from internal servers to the public at exorbitant prices. Due to the overuse of a single port or server, the speed of these services has dropped sharply. Furthermore, sellers no longer offer test accounts, a factor that has led many users to face disconnected or poor-quality services after paying money.
