Fire At Data Center Disrupts Internet In Tehran

A man in Tehran uses the Internet on his mobile phone. (illustrative photo)

Internet outages have been reported across Tehran after a fire at a telecommunications building.

Iran’s Communications Ministry said the incident at a data center caused only a minor disruption to service in the capital, but the state ISNA news agency noted a widespread outage that affected access to mobile and fixed Internet services, including two of the main mobile telecom operators, Shuttle and Mobinont.

The ministry said the fire was caused by a malfunction in a power connection and that the nearby city of Karaj was also affected by the outage.

Iran's conservative authorities maintain tight control over the Internet and block access to various social-media websites such as YouTube and Twitter.