Iran’s mobile network resumes in limited numbers

After more than a week of complete shutdown, mobile network services have been restored in Iran to a limited extent.
Iran International reported that ordinary users in the country were able to send and receive SMS messages from each other since Friday (January 16). However, mobile networks have not yet returned to a level strong enough to make phone calls, and internet services around the world are still completely down.
The country has been paralyzed by a digital blackout in the face of unprecedented anti-government protests that have been going on for nearly 20 days. Iran’s current instability is rooted in the country’s severely collapsed economy. Years of currency devaluation have left the Iranian rial the world’s weakest currency, with an exchange rate of nearly one million rials to the dollar.
The historic currency collapse has put basic needs such as food, clothing and medicine out of reach for ordinary Iranians. The current protests began on December 28 when Tehran businessmen called a strike to protest the unbearable inflation.
The traders’ strike quickly turned into a political movement and spread to some 31 provinces in Iran. It is seen as the biggest challenge to the current government in the 47 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
To control the situation, the government completely cut off the internet and communications systems on January 7 and deployed the army, along with police and security forces, to suppress the protests. According to various unconfirmed sources, more than 12,000 people were killed and thousands of protesters were arrested in bloody clashes between security forces and protesters.

Source: Iran International