Iran Caps Net Access to Keep West Out

davidwr writes "The Guardian reports that Iran has banned high-speed internet access to attempt to curb the west's influence. In addition to seizing satellite dishes and filtering more websites than any country save China, Iran is now capping Internet speeds to 128kbps in order to keep out Western influences." From the article: "The latest step has drawn condemnation from MPs, internet service companies and academics, who say it will hamper Iran's progress. 'Every country in the world is moving towards modernization and a major element of this is high-speed internet access,' said Ramazan-ali Sedeghzadeh, chairman of the parliamentary telecommunications committee. 'The country needs it for development and access to contemporary science.'"

Comments

Tell me again why China=Good but Iran=Bad?

[FatSean]

These two nations don't seem all that different to me.

Technical solutions?

[infolib]

I'm sure it's possible to combine several 128K lines to get one single hi-speed line.

Suppose you and 5 or 6 of your neighbours had 128K each. How would you go about it?

Re:Silly Iranians

[From A Far Away Land]

"The age of religious-controlled nations dominating information is coming to a close."

*keeping my mouth shut about Bush administration and Fox News...

Seriously though, it will never be completely out of style, since the method works to keep a population fearful, ignorant, and in line with the incumbent government. It wouldn't matter if it were a Democrat in office, because they'd find some media outlet(s) to suck from their trough of pre-chewed drivel.

Re:Beware Fundementalists of all Types

[SupraTT GOP]

What do you think about fundamentalist naturalists and secularists? They can be quite fanatical, you know.

I'm iranian

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi all.

First every US based company (virtually %90 of software companies) reject to work with us. Few weeks ago I just lost a $4000 consulting contract just because I'm Iranian (I'm a java programmer and $4000 is a big money here). Commonly I pretend I'm Turkish or other country just to use very basic things in internet like paypal or activating a web hosting. we say half of the web sites are blocked by USA (iee, sun download section, ...), half by mullahs. Now this problem. I don't know what the hell will happen next time.
Regarding music and movie it's not a big problem as most of contents are either from satellite or cd or dvd. Sometimes I think western music groups will be surprised when they know how many fans they have in Islamic Iran and specially in Tehran (my favorites are dire straits and Shania twain among others). Here most of the people have dishes and I think it's between 70%-80%.
Maybe you think we are happy with creating nuclear bomb and this government But I can say must of us are sick of these things. We just want to live a little better like any body else and have some kind of freedom, unlike what this government pretend, we have no kind of problem with outer world.
In Iran young people call the "ali khameneii" (supreme leader) as "ali Galile" because like galile he look at stars (for creating Islamic rules).
The biggest use of internet in Iran is for chatting with yahoo. Girls looking for boys and boys looking for girls (talking in public can result in prison or forced marriage if government arrests). So this will not affect the biggest use of internet in Iran. If you take a look at asia rooms in yahoo messenger and if you know farsi you will see almost every body is Iranian. Other things like orkut are already blocked. You may wonder but this fool (president) already forced coffeenets (small shops which let you connect to internet in the shop) in specified days don't let boys use internet and the same for girls meaning avoid both boys and girls be at the coffeenet at the same time. Some people wish USA drop a bomb and kill this government and if we die, it's not a big problem.
It's funny but this kind of governments fear from virtually every thing. Like high speed internet, dishes, and even yahoo messenger.
Also we are not Arab we are persian, some people hate arabs for what they have done to our country (including me).
Some times I think life is a little tough with us but maybe it's our predecessors fault.

Re:I'm iranian

[IMightB]

yeah, I am friends with a Syrian who recently went back to Syria to visit his family. He told me some interesting things when he got back: He basically said that he was "treated better by both the USA and England combined than by his own country" He also mentioned that he told his close friends and family this when he was in Syria and was being asked why he chose to live in the US rather than Syria. His friends and family are under the impression that the US and England are the great infidels that are trying to destroy Islam, and that this is an idea that is being promoted by the government over there. He evidently could have gotten into a lot of trouble had his comments become known by the Syrian officials.

Re:I'm iranian

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope that government over there will pass soon, and you'll get back to where you're not under complete government control.

I'm sorry to say that I seriously doubt the United States will be able to do anything to help you. There are too many people in this country that want to see things just as they are now, rather than going over there and freeing your people from the dictators you are under. It's very sad that the same people that complain about supposedly lack of freedom in the US don't want see others freed.

My Iraqi friends are delighted that Saddam is out of power, and mad that terrorists are coming into Iraq just to stir up trouble. They hear the news reports coming out of the United States and constantly ask why so many people hate Iraq so much, and why those people wanted Saddam to stay.

Re:For those who marked this flamebait:

[Johnboi Waltune]

For laughs when listening to a politician speak, try mentally replacing the word "God" with some other deity people have made up.

"I don't believe atheists should be considered patriots, nor should they be considered citizens. This is one nation under Zeus" - George Bush Sr.

"I believe that Poseidon has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom." - George Bush Jr.

"Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that Mithra is not neutral between them." - George Bush Jr.

"Neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities, nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth can separate us from Odin's love." - George Bush Jr.