Cuba to offer public Internet at salons islandwide

Posted on Tuesday, 05.28.13
COMMUNICATIONS

Cuba to offer public Internet at salons islandwide
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press

HAVANA -- Cuban authorities said Tuesday that they will begin offering
public Internet access at more than 100 cyber-salons across the island,
though home Web service remains greatly restricted.

Starting June 4, people can sign up with state telecom Etecsa for
temporary or permanent accounts to use one of the 118 centers, according
to a measure enacted with its publication in the government's Official
Gazette.

"New areas for (Internet) navigation will gradually be incorporated,"
official newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported.

Until now, the Internet has been limited to places such as tourist
hotels that charge $8 an hour for creaky Wi-Fi, foreign-run companies
and some sectors of Cuban business and government. Residential dial-up
accounts are rare and restricted.

According to government statistics, only 2.9 percent of Cubans said they
had access to the Worldwide Web – though outside observers put the
likely figure at 5 to 10 percent, taking underreporting into account.

About 16 percent were able to go partway online via a domestic Intranet
and email, often through workplace or school hookups or places such as
computer clubs and post offices.

"Great! I knew this was coming," said Camila Delgado, a 44-year-old shop
worker in Havana, though she added that "there's still a ways to go to
be like everywhere else on the planet. We don't have access at home and
the prices are prohibitive."

Indeed, some scoffed at the new cyber-centers' price tag of $4.50 an
hour, a stiff fee for islanders whose state salaries average about $20
per month plus an array of subsidized goods and services.

"It's a real bargain," snarked a user on state news website Cuba Si who
gave the name Osvaldo Ulloa. "I mean, I work for a week and then I can
get online for hour – fabulous."

Even for those who are already able to access the wider Internet, some
sites are censored for things including pornography or politically
objectionable content. It was not clear whether the new service will
block such pages, and neither the Gazette nor Juventud Rebelde mentioned
the issue.

The Internet is a highly politicized issue on the island, with critics
pointing to restrictions as an example of infringement upon freedom.

Authorities say that the limitations are due more to technical reasons
and that Cuba has the obligation to prioritize its limited capacity for
things that benefit the public good, such as research and work centers
or universities.

Earlier this year, Cuba began sending and receiving data traffic through
a fiber-optic cable strung from Venezuela in 2011 that provided the
island's first hard-wired Internet connection to the outside world.

Expanding connectivity options for Cubans "is consistent with Cuba's
stated strategy of continuing to facilitate more and more access to new
technologies, depending on the availability of resources and with a
focus that favors social use," Juventud Rebelde said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/28/3421157/cuba-to-offer-public-internet.html