After a sweeping internet shutdown followed a brutal protest crackdown in Iran, the United States quietly moved thousands of satellite internet kits into the country to reconnect activists and ordinary citizens. Centered on Starlink terminals — small dishes that can talk directly to low orbit satellites — the operation turned a commercial technology into a geopolitical tool. Within weeks, an underground network of dishes, power banks, and rooftop rigs reshaped how Iranians could communicate with the outside world, even as the state tried to seal the country off.
The Trump administration treated the covert shipments as both a human rights intervention and a strategic bet that connectivity could blunt repression. Iranian authorities criminalized the hardware and threatened long prison terms for those caught using it, yet demand surged anyway, and by late 2024 tens of thousands of people were believed to be online through Starlink. The result is a rare case in which a foreign government, a private space company, and a loose web of smugglers collectively punched a hole in a digital wall.
The secret Starlink pipeline into Iran
Officials in The US organized a clandestine program to move satellite internet gear into Iran after security forces crushed protests and cut connectivity across the country. According to multiple accounts, The Trump administration covertly sent thousands of Starlink terminals across borders and into safe houses, routing shipments through third countries and private intermediaries so they could not easily be traced back to Washington. One detailed report describes how The Trump team covertly sent the equipment into Iran after protests, framing the effort as a response to the regime’s use of blackouts to silence dissent.
Human rights groups described the January crackdown as one of the bloodiest in recent years, with thousands of activists reported killed and the Internet deliberately throttled or shut down in key cities. In that context, U.S. officials saw satellite connectivity as one of the few tools that could not be easily blocked by state telecom operators. Another account says the Trump administration covertly delivered roughly 6,000 of the compact terminals, a figure that aligns with other descriptions of the scale of the operation. A separate report on how Trump officials secretly sent Starlink terminals to aid Iran protesters similarly describes the gear as intended to help activists circumvent regime internet restrictions and keep information flowing out of the country.
How 6,000 terminals changed a blackout
The core of the operation was volume. U.S. officials cited in one account say that after the January unrest, The US transported 6,000 terminals into Iran in an unprecedented push to defeat the blackout. Another detailed breakdown describes how 6,000 terminals were delivered after a sweeping internet shutdown, with U.S. officials explaining that the devices were meant to restore basic connectivity for protest organizers and independent journalists. In that account, reporter Seyit Kurt notes that the figure of 6,000 terminals became a benchmark for judging the scale of the covert effort.
The hardware only mattered because SpaceX agreed to make the service usable inside the country. Earlier this year, SpaceX activated free Starlink access in Iran during a national internet blackout, a move that followed what one analysis describes as high level discussions between the Trump administration and the company’s leadership. In that account, the section labeled Executive and Geopolitical highlights how the decision raised questions about a private firm helping to bypass a nation state’s domestic law. For Iranians on the ground, however, the combination of free service and smuggled dishes meant that even when fiber links and mobile networks went dark, pockets of connectivity could survive on rooftops and in safe houses.
An underground ecosystem of smuggled tech
Once the first shipments arrived, an entire ecosystem formed around the illicit hardware. One investigation describes how an underground market in smuggled tech has become Iran’s last link to the outside world, with Starlink dishes, power inverters, and portable batteries changing hands in encrypted chat groups and backroom shops. Digital rights researcher Rashidi is quoted estimating that There are about 50,000 Starlink terminals now in Iran, while other reports put the number even higher, suggesting that the original U.S. pipeline has been supplemented by private smuggling and gray market imports.
The risks are severe. The same investigation notes that those who are using them risk their lives, with penalties reportedly reaching up to 10 years in prison for people caught with unauthorized satellite gear. Another detailed account of how Starlink helped citizens break out of what activists call a digital prison cites Tehran’s Chamber of Commerce, which estimated that In December 2024 there were about 100,000 Starlink users in Iran, a country of roughly 90 million people, even though the technology is illegal. That gap between law and practice shows how far the underground market has outpaced the state’s ability to police every rooftop.
Voices from inside the digital backdoor
For Iranians who managed to get online, the dishes became more than gadgets. A U.S. Iranian entrepreneur who has worked to expand access described in a video interview how Starlink links have been critical for activists trying to send photos, videos, and eyewitness accounts out of the country when domestic networks are cut. In that conversation, recorded in Jan, the entrepreneur urges global leaders to show the same kind of courage as those risking arrest to keep their dishes powered, an appeal captured in an interview that can be seen in this segment.
Another explainer video, focused on how Musk’s free Starlink access became a game changer, walks through how the compact terminals let users bypass national internet infrastructure entirely. The presenter notes that these devices are illegal in Iran yet have been the only way for Iranians to get information, photos, and videos out when the state shuts down conventional networks. That dynamic is laid out in a visual report on how Iranians use Starlink, which shows how small groups cluster around a single dish to upload footage to apps like Telegram, Signal, and Instagram while government censors scramble to catch up.
Geopolitics, secrecy and the next phase
The covert program has also become a geopolitical story in its own right. One detailed account notes that Trump officials quietly debated how far to go in arming protesters with connectivity, with at least one senior official directly approving the operation to move Starlink hardware into Iran. That description appears in a report on how the Trump administration covertly sent Starlink terminals to Iran in secret, which also highlights concerns that the shipments could be framed by Tehran as foreign interference. Another summary of the same operation, shared by Kayhan Life on social media, puts the number of smuggled terminals at roughly 6,000 and attributes the move to The Trump administration, again underscoring the scale of the commitment.
Iranian officials, for their part, have framed the network as a threat to national security and have tried to tighten border controls, while activists argue that the real threat is a blackout that hides abuses from the world. One analysis of the protests notes that After the regime crushed protests in January, thousands of activists were killed and Internet access was sharply restricted, with some reports warning that authorities could begin executing detained activists. That warning appears in an account of how the Trump administration secretly sent Starlink terminals to Iran amid protests, which can be read in full here. Another detailed report on the same program, which describes how Trump officials secretly smuggled Starlink terminals to aid Iran protesters, emphasizes that the goal was to help regime opponents circumvent internet restrictions and keep documenting abuses, a point reinforced in that account.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
