Iran's Internet is partially restored, Cloudflare Radar data shows

Iran's Internet is partially restored, Cloudflare Radar data shows 2026-05-27 Lai Yi Ohlsen Sabina Zejnilovic 4 min read On Tuesday, May 26, Iran’s vice president announced that Internet access had started to be restored in the country after being cut off almost three months ago, following the launch of U.S. and Israeli attacks on February 28. Cloudflare Radar data confirms increased activity and indicates a partial restoration of the Internet in Iran. In this blog post, we’ll examine a range of data points that provide a lens into this prolonged shutdown – and the signs that Iran’s citizens are increasingly able to connect once again. As the situation continues to unfold, Radar will have the latest data on Iran’s connectivity . The first shutdown Iranian citizens have experienced two national Internet shutdowns this year. The first began on January 8 around 16:30 UTC (20:00 local time), and we explored the impact seen over the first few days in a blog post . Traffic from Iran remained near zero until January 21, when a small amount of traffic returned, only to disappear a little over 24 hours later. A similar brief restoration also occurred on January 25, before traffic recovered more fully beginning on January 27. The second shutdown In late February, as military strikes on Iran escalated, a second nationwide Internet shutdown began. That sweeping shutdown has persisted for nearly three months. The shutdown began on February 28. On that date, Cloudflare Radar observed a sharp drop in traffic from Iran beginning around 10:30 local time (07:00 UTC). Traffic levels fell to well under 1% of previous levels, with only small amounts of Web and DNS traffic leaving the country. Activity on May 26 Our observations indicate that more traffic is now finally able to get through. Starting at around 11:00 UTC on May 26, 87 days after the second shutdown started, Cloudflare Radar observed a marked increase in both traffic and DNS queries. Traffic increase Data for bytes tra