Iran Jams Satellite Broadcasts

Meysam Salehian, Rooz Online:

Iran's hardline Sepah-e Passdaran Revolutionary Guards Corps has launched a new project to use intelligent jamming to block specific satellite channels and broadcasts beamed into Iran.

Rials 100 billion were allocated for the project earlier this year and its operations began about two weeks ago through which by the end of the year some 50 to 70 jamming stations in Tehran and some other cities would prevent television sets in Iran to receive satellite-broadcast signals, primarily Persian language broadcasts. READ MORE

Under existing plans, the current 50 jamming stations would be increased to 300. The original program began during the initial years of Mohammad Khatami’s presidency after people poured into the streets following the victory of Iran’s football team in Australia, and subsequently the student protests in June and July of 2003.

According to informed sources, the problem with the earlier jamming efforts was that the sweepers that were used could only jam frequencies between 10.8 and 12.8 on the bandwidth. This jammed the signals that the state-run radio and television system itself wanted to receive.

The new efforts use synthesizers which apparently take care of the problem. Khatami’s administration put obstacles to the Rials 2,000 project of the Passdaran, but not to much avail. Observers conclude that with the new budget and purchases that the guards have made, this may impact the number of foreign-broadcast television viewers inside Iran.