Iran plowing ahead with closed network separate from Internet

It's behind schedule, but Iran is pushing ahead with a closed, tightly controlled intranet that would offer no or little access to the global Internet, an Iranian news outlet has reported.

A limited test version was launched in January in the province of Qom, site of Iran's holiest city, reports Mianeh. A similar pilot network is expected to be launched in Kerman province by the year's end.

The National Internet Network, a misnomer begun in 2005 shortly after the election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was to have been finished nationwide last year but fell behind schedule. The country's leadership jump-started the effort after last year's disputed election and crackdown on the opposition, which used the Internet to convey news and images of the turmoil. Completion is now targeted for the end of Ahmadinejad's term in 2013, but some experts don't think that's realistic.

Here's background on the Internet in Iran.

Currently, authorities limit Internet access speeds to a maximum of 128 kilobytes per second. They have said the separate network would be faster. (By comparison, average U.S. broadband speed is 6,198 kbps -- but that's about three times slower than in South Korea, which has the top speed.)

Mianeh explains:

Officials say the main reason the internet in Iran is slow at the moment is heavy web content. In May, Saber Feyzi, the head of Iran's national telecoms company told the Mehr news agency that visits to foreign websites were largely to blame for slowing the system down. At the same time, other officials say the bulk of visits are to Iranian websites rather than foreign ones.

Could this be a model for other governments interested in creating digital moats to "protect" their citizens from the "dangerous" outside world?