Lol internet in Iran

[Atreides]

From news.yahoo.com

 

Iran cuts Internet speeds to homes, cafes

 

Wed Oct 18, 10:39 AM ET

 

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's internet service providers (ISPs) have started reducing the speed of Internet access to homes and cafes based on new government-imposed limits, a move critics said appeared to be part of a clampdown on the media.

 

An official said last week that ISPs were now "forbidden" by the Telecommunications Ministry from providing Internet connections faster than 128 kilobytes per second (KBps), the official IRNA news agency reported. He did not give a reason.

 

Internet technicians say speeds of 256 KBps, 512 KBps or higher are increasingly common internationally. Iranian surfers will now find it much slower to download music or anything else from the Web. Businesses have not been affected by the move.

 

Critics said the restriction would hinder the work of students and researchers but said it appeared in line with what they see as a squeeze on the media by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who rails against the West.

 

"Once more, one of the most important tools for providing information is faced with new government red lines and restrictions," the opposition reform-minded daily, Etemad-e Melli, wrote in an article on the new speed limitation.

 

The authorities have shutdown the leading pro-reform newspaper and launched a crackdown on those flouting a ban on satellite dishes. Critics say the authorities have put increasing pressure on opposition journalists, academics and students.

 

The government denies the charges, saying it welcomes criticism.

 

An Iranian Internet engineer, who asked not to be identified, said his firm had this week started reducing speeds provided to homes and Internet cafes, but not businesses.

 

The Telecommunications Ministry official said the order would stay in place until "new regulations for providing ADSL (high-speed Internet) services" were issued, IRNA reported.

 

It was not clear if this meant the restrictions were only temporary, but another ISP official said he expected the restriction to stay in place.

 

He said his firm had yet to be officially informed of the new order but was starting to impose the limitations on customers anyway "because we are not looking for problems."

 

Iran blocks some Web sites, including the BBC Persian-language site, which Iran says has an "anti-Iranian tendency." Satellite dishes are banned because officials say they bring "corrupt" Western values into Iranian homes.

[alanschu]

Though 128 KBps is hardly restrictive.

 

Until I moved I was going at 250 KBps, and that's hella fast.

[Surreptishus]

They are diverting the extra bandwidth to their nuclear weapons program. It comprises of 1,000 scientist googling "super fast uranium enrichment" and "good quality ICBMs"

[Diamond]

Pffft, it is hardly a "cut". Someone is just spoiled by ADSL2+ broadband.

 

Of course you can't comfortably watch youtube at this speed, but reading online media doesn't take that much bandwidth.

[alanschu]

I disagree, you can still comfortably watch YouTube at that speed.

 

My peak bandwidth was 2.5 Mbit at my old place, and while that is twice as fast, that's only assuming I was able to actually get that bandwidth from YouTube. In any case, they were plenty fast with that connection, and I doubt it's a world of inconvenience at half the speed.

[Surreptishus]

huh? Oh wait, they said kilobytes in the article.

Hmm... i am thinking that is a typo or whoever wrote it does not know the difference between bits and bytes. Cuz 128kbit/s is horribly slow.

[Dark_Raven]

Iran has internet services? Isn't that against some rule to keep the masses ignorant to the outside world?

[alanschu]

huh? Oh wait, they said kilobytes in the article.

Hmm... i am thinking that is a typo or whoever wrote it does not know the difference between bits and bytes. Cuz 128kbit/s is horribly slow.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Well, they put KB (which is kilobyte, not kilobit) in parenthesis right beside it.

 

 

How slow is 128kbps now-a-days? I was able to survive on old phone lines that didn't get me more than 26.4 kbps, until the bulk of the internet decided to use images more frequently.

[Judge Hades]

This sort of behvior I cannot stand. Unrestrited access to information is a must for any society who wants to be considered proressive.

[Atreides]

Nowadays surfing at 128kbit/s is even worse than it was back then because most pages load tons of media (ie advertisement) content that assume the consumer's got a decent connection

[metadigital]

It sounds like Ahmadinejad is just trying to incentivize the students into employment ... "

 

Ok, maybe the censorship isn't alaughing matter, like banning the BBC Persian-language site.

[Sand]

It is the purpose of government to act in the self interest of those who it governs, however censorship is never in the best interest for a society that wishes to become modernized and be seen as a progressive power which seems to be Iran's justification for their nuclear power program.

[metadigital]

That's an interesting definition of government ... some might argue that government has mainly acted in the interests of those who govern ...

[Rosbjerg]

those would be democrats..

 

but we all known that's just a historical anecdote, at best a retro-movement.. Democracy will fall out of fashion soon enough!

Edited October 19, 2006 by Rosbjerg

[Atreides]

I think this one may actually backfire because you get tons of pissed off people because their internet speed sucks.

[metadigital]

Chinese Ban Internet Rumors

from the yeah-good-luck-with-that dept.

dptalia writes

"Chongqing province in southwest China has just passed a law fining people who post malicious rumors online. An individual can face fines of 1,000 to 5,000 yuan ($630) and an organization can be fined between 3,000 and 15,000 yuan."

[Checkpoint]

They are diverting the extra bandwidth to their nuclear weapons program. It comprises of 1,000 scientist googling "super fast uranium enrichment" and "good quality ICBMs"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...and "1001 ways to waste a yank using just atoms"