Very little has been published about the plans that the telecommunication authority has to roll out internet connection to people\u2019s homes. According to recent statements by Odalys Rodr\u00edguez del Toro, director of ETECSA\u2019s Havana division \u201ca pilot test will begin to bring internet to homes in specific areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
These connections will be via fibre optic, thanks to an agreement with the Chinese business Huawei and \u201cwill advise about prices at the right time,\u201d according to the Cuban News Agency.<\/p>\n
The beneficiaries will be two People\u2019s Councils in the municipality of Old Havana, whose inhabitants will be the first who can take out a broad-band service for their houses.<\/p>\n
What follows this \u201cpilot plan\u201d? Little or nothing more is known.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of June 2015 a strategy for the development of connectivity, whose authenticity has been neither publicly confirmed nor denied by the authorities, was leaked online. A timeline from the document began circulating detailing that by 2020 50% of Cuban homes should be able to access the internet on broadband ADSL connections.<\/p>\n
Today there is only 27% internet access penetration in Cuba. It was also the country in America that was furthest behind in a ranking compiled by the International Telecommunications Union according to a report that compares the Information and Technology Communication Indices of 167 nations in 2015 compared to 2010. The island moved from 119 to 129 in the list which cross references access, use, competency and ICT skills.<\/p>\n
Up until now, most Cubans who have access to the internet use it at their job places; or use it at public WiFi spots paying the onerous price of 2 CUC for an hour of connectivity, to access the web\u2026<\/p>\n
Among the few individuals favoured by access to networks from their houses, there are over 40,000 health workers who, between September and October of 2015, saw how their traditional, limited, connections became full-service, as Mayra Arevich, president of ETECSA confirmed in an interview.<\/p>\n
These connections still depend on the archaic 56kbs modems that are almost extinct in the market and the copper wires of the landline.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s Infomed users have 25 hours of unlimited internet use per month, but the speed is so precarious that many users feel that this \u2018fixes\u2019 nothing. The service is measured by time and not by the amount of data downloaded.<\/p>\n
Pedro Urra insists that while the ADSL system is not widespread (due to ETECSA investments) the modified dial-up connection is still useful in terms of widening access to something that is already defined as a right. \u201cInfomed has given many people the opportunity to exercise their right to access the internet\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another solution for quality access from home, estimates Urra, could be in the option of communal WiFi spots. \u201cI believe that this is the only quick way for so many people to get internet in their houses\u201d.<\/p>\n
While there seems to be no hurry to significantly increase the much-desired advancement of the broadband, what remains for the majority of Cubans \u2013 after having handed over a couple of convertible pesos (CUC) \u2013 is sitting in the open air, on a park bench or on a wall in the WiFi zones. In Havana, this option will increase by 30 new spaces (two per municipality) in 2016, again according to the capital\u2019s ETECSA director, Odalys Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n
ETECSA also said that it plans to provide WiFi connection \u201cin the cafeterias, bars and restaurants that ask for it in the future\u201d. Perhaps some of them are already making plans. Much depends on the prices with which the new the services will be provided.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Very little has been published about the plans that the telecommunication authority has to roll out internet connection to people\u2019s homes. According to recent statements by Odalys Rodr\u00edguez del Toro, director of ETECSA\u2019s Havana division \u201ca pilot test will begin to bring internet to homes in specific areas.\u201d These connections will be via fibre optic, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3235,"featured_media":63051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13910],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[33853,11574],"class_list":["post-63049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-in-cuba"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n