OREANDA-NEWS. The total damage from disconnecting the Internet in Iran to local telecom operators amounted to about $ 90 million. This was announced on Monday by the Minister of Information and Communication Technologies of Iran, Mohammad Jawad Azari Jahromi. "The Communications Control Organization reported that the damage to operators amounted to 10.8 trillion riyals (about $ 90 million)", he said in an interview with ISNA. The minister noted that "Irancell has suffered most of this damage".

He added that, "according to the executive director of the State Postal Company, the decline in their income during the period of disconnecting the Internet was 40%". "Statistics show that most of the small businesses are damaged", Jahromi said. The minister said that "the financial losses that the business has incurred are still being calculated". "We will announce the results as soon as the calculation is completed", the minister said.

On November 16, Iranian authorities turned off the Internet in the country, leaving access only to some online services. The decision to block was made against the backdrop of ongoing protests caused by a threefold increase in gas prices.