Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Friday, December 20th.

Today on Forbes, inside Iran's thriving black market for Starlink terminals.

In November, a man named Mohamed waited in an alley near his apartment in a city in southern Iran.

The 38-year-old construction consultant was due to meet with

the representative of a seller he'd found on telegram and was prepared to hand over 700 U.S. dollars

in exchange for a piece of illegal technology believed to pose a threat to the regime in Tehran,

a Starlink terminal that would give him free, uncensored access to the

internet. Starlink, a satellite internet service built by SpaceX, is banned in Iran,

which has some of the most restrictive internet in the world. The Apple and Google app stores,

and apps like Instagram and Slack are all blocked by government

sensors, who often arrest those who say things online that could be considered, quote,

anti-Islamic or critical of the Islamic Republic.

But Starlink's use has surged in the last two years since SpaceX's billionaire founder Elon

Musk turned on the service,

an act that encouraged smugglers to sneak terminals into Iran.

Threats of fines and jail time haven't deterred a black market fueled by a growing activist

movement to get the internet into people's hands.

Now, Forbes has learned as many as an estimated

20,000 people have high-speed internet access that is nearly impossible for the Islamic Republic

to censor, much less shut down. 20,000 is a minuscule fraction of the 89 million people who

live in Iran, and the exorbitant resale prices mean the

terminals are only affordable for the privileged few. They resell for anywhere from $700 to $2,000,

...