You bastards!
Posted on 10/18/2006 1:14:57 PM PDT by freedom44
Iran's Internet service providers 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 Islamic Republic New Agency, Iran's official news outlet, reported. No reason was given for the restriction.
Internet technicians say speeds of 256KBps, 512KBps or higher are increasingly common internationally. Iranian surfers will now find it takes much longer 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 reform-minded daily Etemad-e Melli declared in an article on the new speed limitation.
The authorities have shut down 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.
Religion of lag?
You bastards!
Oh, boo hoo. Wonder how they'd like my 28.8 Kbps dialup.
Wonder how they'd like my 28.8 Kbps dialup.
I'm not much better at 48Kps but, I still get all the info I want.
If you control the news..you control the masses
Back to the 7th Century!.......
They'd probably crap on a Koran if they ever found out about broadband cable!!!!.........
LOL!
Geez, I just upgraded to 5000 kbps from 3000. I'd go nuts at 128. Maybe I'd stop surfing the net and get a life.
I can understand the muddled mullahs cutting speeds though. You don't want an oppressed populace getting too much information that might make them rebellious and restless and put them into an overthrowing mood.
Surfing at 128 will just put you to sleep.
An entire country switched to AOL!!!!
Cable ... imagine their reaction to FIOS.
Now the students will revolt?
Two days? Try two minutes. :)
That would be one issue that could theoretically unite freepers and DUmmies.
Bandwidth is civilization.
This is the end of the World......of Warcraft.
I was thinking the same thing , My connection is going great when i get 28.8
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