'They can’t block the sky': Inside an ingenious satellite TV hack bypassing Iran’s internet blackout — when the web goes dark, activists are smuggling gigabytes of data through ordinary television signals to keep the Iranian people connected to the world

• Satellite TV signals became a hidden pipeline to circumvent Iran's government-imposed internet shutdown
• Toosheh delivers gigabytes of data without user interaction or a trace
• Jamming efforts fail to fully block satellite-based data delivery

In January 2026, the Iranian government shut down internet services across all provinces for weeks and also throttled VPNs, messaging, and phone services.

To regain connectivity, a nonprofit organization called NetFreedom Pioneers turned to an unlikely solution: ordinary satellite television signals.

The technology, dubbed Toosheh, delivers curated data through free-to-air TV satellite broadcasts that the government cannot easily block.

How satellite TV signals became a data delivery system

Free-to-air satellite broadcasts are unencrypted and can be received by anyone with a dish and receiver, with no subscription required - tech enthusiasts found that they could use a DVB card to transform a personal computer into a satellite receiver.

With this, the device will do more than simply watch live TV; it will also capture and store data.

Toosheh works by using the MPEG transport stream that satellite TV uses, but slips in documents, videos, and software in such a way that a receiver treats them like regular audio or video.

Users receive 1 to 5 gigabytes of prepackaged content in a magazine-like format, without ever sending requests or revealing their activity, as the system leaves no traceable logs, making it entirely private and undetectable.

Why traditional jamming is not so effective

Terrestrial jamming has been used to block the network, using antennas installed at higher elevations to beam strong noise over specific areas.

But this method is short-range and requires considerable power, making it impossible to implement nationwide.

NetFreedom Pioneers added redundancy to its transmissions, similar to a data storage technique called RAID.

Under normal conditions, it uses about 5% of its bandwidth for redundancy. During active jamming, it increases that to as much as 30%.

This allows users to reconstruct complete files even when some packets are corrupted.

During the internet shutdown, Toosheh distributed official statements from Iranian opposition leaders and the US government.

The system delivered first aid tutorials for medics and injured protesters, along with uncensored news reports from BBC Persian, Iran International, and VOA Farsi.

It also delivered critical software packages, including anti-censorship tools and guides for securely connecting to Starlink satellite terminals.

However, the system is not without its challenges. Operating Toosheh costs tens of thousands of dollars per month for satellite bandwidth.

With the US State Department ending its funding in August 2025, the cost burden falls entirely on the nonprofit organizations, which can only keep it running temporarily with private donations.

Also, unlike two-way systems like Starlink, Toosheh provides only downloads, not uploads, meaning users cannot send messages or communicate back.

Still, Toosheh offers a lifeline, delivering data through the sky in a way that censors cannot easily block.

Via IEEE Spectrum

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