Regional shutdown
MMS, SMS
Kurdistan
The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq ordered Internet services to be suspended on the morning of 24 July 2026 2025 between 6:30 and 7:30 local time (+3 UTC). This is the first of a series of regional shutdowns during the public school exams.
- Total Duration 1 hour
Iraq
- Population
- 47,020,774
Freedom House rates Internet freedom as Partly Free
Related documentation
The affected networks include KNET — Kurdistan Net (AS206206), Newroz Telecom (AS21277), IQ Online (AS48492), and KorekTel (AS59625). Together, these networks have around 20% of the overall Iraqi market but serve the vast majority of the population in the Kurdistan region.
Local media reported that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was asked by the Ministry of Education to suspend access to the Internet during the examinations in the public interest and to prevent cheating in the second round of examinations. The shutdown includes access to the Internet and Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) between 6:30 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. local time.
Services excluded from this shutdown are:
- Information Center of "My Account" project in 32nd neighborhood of Erbil Park.
- All ATMs.
- All banks in the Kurdistan Region.
- International airports.
- Lighting project data centers and smart metering systems.
Other supporting information
Cloudflare Radar data shows drops in Cloudflare traffic in key networks operating mainly in the Kurdistan region in Iraq, namely Kurdistan NET (KNET).
