Cuba's Internet - It's Bad, But It Might Get Better

Cuba's Internet: It's Bad, But It Might Get Better

By SANTIAGO WILLS

Aug. 8, 2013



There's no use in trying to watch a YouTube video, and chances are you

won't be able to find that cute Cuban you just met on Facebook or

Twitter, much less Skype with her or send her an email while on the

island of Cuba.



The country, despite recent advances, is still a dark hole in matters

relating to web connectivity. The country consistently ranks as the

least connected in the Western Hemisphere and there are a myriad of

problems that prevent the population from participating in the World

Wide Web.



The country has, however, been seeing some advances in the past few

years. Here's what clearly still needs work, and what is slowly getting

better.



The Bad News



Let's start with the constant problems that the island's citizens face

when confronting the possibility of using services such as Skype,

YouTube, Facebook, etc.: Internet access is expensive and scarce, and

speeds are painfully, excruciatingly slow.



On a recent visit to Havana, rates for an hour of unlimited web access

in a cyber café ranged from $6 to $10, an outrageous price when you take

into account that the average salary is around $20 a month.



Cuba has 0.04 fixed broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants,

according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the

U.N.'s agency that analyzes and promotes the development of information

and communication technologies. The figure is six times smaller than

that of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, four times smaller than Haiti, and is

comparable only to Sudan and a handful of other African nations.



Only politicians, certain journalists, and medical students can legally

access the web from their homes. A few people have illegal access points

that they often profit from by selling the service on the black market.

That means that regular, law-abiding Cubans can only connect through the

expensive cyber cafés I mentioned above. It also takes a really long

time to load most. For example, Facebook or Nytimes.com takes on average

about a minute or two, which means that you end up being shortchanged

for your paid time.



More worryingly, access is not really unlimited. The government still

blocks several websites and the embargo prevents Cubans from using

services such as Google Maps and Google Apps. Blogs from opposition

figures like Yoani Sánchez, Reinaldo Escobar, and Dimas Castellanos

can't be accessed on the island. In fact, your web connection tends to

get even slower after you try to access these sites. Other blocked pages

include Revolico, a Cuban version of Craigslist, and Univision.com. (All

other news outlets I tried were available.) And in case you're

wondering, porn is totally banned. Trying to access a porn site can lead

to the cancellation of web access points.



All of these factors have contributed to the island's disparaging record

and poor scores in global analyses of internet freedom. In 2012, Cuba

ranked second to last behind Iran as the country with the least web

freedom in the world, according to a global survey published by Freedom

House, an international watchdog that monitors net access and

restrictions in more than 40 countries.



The Good News (Perhaps)



Though they may not be momentous, there are a couple of changes that

could signal a transformation for the country's internet framework.



In the past 10 years, the percentage of Cubans using the internet has

risen from 3.77 percent to 25.64 percent, according to ITU estimates.



In January, Etecsa, the state-controlled telecommunications company,

announced that it would start using a fiber-optic submarine cable

connecting Cuba and Venezuela to provide increased internet speed and

broadband capabilities.



On June 4, the Cuban government also opened 118 new cheaper access

points throughout the island. The number is certainly small, but it's a

welcome beginning for many Cubans. Etecsa has said that they will lower

prices and offer mobile access and connections at people's homes by the

end of 2014.



Given recent history, skepticism is warranted, but so is hope that more

access will be available to Cuba's society.



Source: "The Internet in Cuba: Facts and Myths About Web Access - ABC

News" -

http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/internet-cuba-facts-myths-web-access/story?id=19895951