01 October 2010 at 09h30
* Cuba has made little Internet progress
* Cubans can't afford to buy at online store
Havana - Fidel Castro has gone from Cuba's commander in chief to its de
facto "blogger in chief," posting constant opinion columns online,
singing the praises of the Internet age, even hailing Wikileaks and
sites like it as the common man's tool to greater worldwide transparency.
Now, if only his fellow Cubans could get in on the cyber-party.
Less than three percent of islanders used the Internet at least once
over the past year and only about six percent used e-mail, according to
a nationwide survey released on Thursday by the state-run National
Office of Statistics.
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Cuba has long published annual statistics on its Internet and cell phone
users. But the level of detail contained in this survey had not been
made public before - and it revealed a country astoundingly behind the
technological times.
Just 2.9 percent of survey responders said they had used the Internet in
the past 12 months, and the majority of those did so at work or school -
not from home. Cuba only legalised the sale of computers to the general
public in 2008, though they were, and still are, widely available on the
black market.
The tally paints a far bleaker picture than the statistics office's
annual report on connectivity, which found that Cuba had 1.6 million
Internet users last year. But even that is far below Internet access in
any other country in Latin America, according to international surveys.
Statistics officials based their study on interviews with 38 000
households across the island from February to April. The office did not
say whether the survey was done in person or over the phone, and it
listed the margin of error only as less than five percentage points.
It was not clear how many Cubans themselves would see the statistics,
however, since they were posted on the agency's website.
The communist government severely limits web access, but says it has no
choice given that Washington's 48-year-old embargo doesn't allow Cuba to
access US service providers located close by. Instead, the island must
rely on slow and costly Internet via satellite from Europe and other
faraway locales.
Meanwhile, authorities block blogs that are critical of the government
as well as other pages containing content that is considered counter to
Castro's 1959 revolution.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has promised to lay a fibre-optic cable
from his country to Cuba to improve connectivity here, but those plans
have been stalled for years.
Of those surveyed by the National Office of Statistics, only 5.8 percent
said they use e-mail. The survey did not say how often.
Ordinary Cubans can join an islandwide network that allows them to send
and receive international e-mail, but lines are long at youth clubs,
post offices and the few Internet cafes that provide access.
The survey also found that just 2.6 percent of respondents regularly use
cellphones, despite the government's dramatic lifting of bans on them
two years ago. That was slightly higher than the 2.5 percent who said
they own cell phones or have been issued them for work - meaning some
are using phones that belong to relatives, friends or neighbours.
Those percentages are substantially lower than previously released
figures, with the state-controlled telecommunications monopoly reporting
in July that more than 1 million cell phone lines were in use
nationwide. Cuba has a population of 11.2 million people.
Mobile phones in Cuba had been prohibited for all but tourists and
foreigners, some government employees, business officials and academics.
But in April 2008, just two months after he succeeded his brother as
president, Raul Castro authorised their sale to all who could afford
them. - Sapa-AP
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