Iran summons Norway's ambassador over Starlink, claims it disabled terminals during January protests

Iran’s foreign ministry summoned Norway’s ambassador to Tehran on Sunday and handed him a formal protest note over what it called the “unauthorised” activities of Starlink satellite internet inside Iran, Rudaw reported, citing Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

Foreign ministry director-general Mohammad Hassaninejad accused Oslo of failing its obligations as the notifying and registering administration for the Starlink network at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), saying Tehran had repeatedly asked Norway to act against Starlink terminals operating in Iran without authorisation. Iran claims decisions by the ITU’s Radio Regulations Board oblige Norway to prevent the unauthorised transmissions, Press TV reported.

Then on Monday, Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, head of Iran’s National Cyberspace Center, told state broadcaster IRIB that Iran had “successfully disabled” Starlink terminals during the nationwide January protests — “for the first time” — and that Tehran has “other tools” to counter the service, anews reported. Aghamiri was responding to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who displayed a Starlink terminal during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 24.

Iran imposed a nationwide internet blackout on January 8 as the protests intensified; Starlink remained one of the few ways Iranians could get online, though the service reportedly suffered heavy interference. Iranian authorities have since tightened a crackdown on the service, seizing hundreds of terminals and arresting users and alleged smugglers, according to Rudaw.