Cuba’s Finally Doing Something About Its Insanely Expensive Internet

Getting online is bloody close insufferable in Cuba — unless you ’re very rich . That ’s because the state - run run telecom company , Etecsa , has historically limited access and heraldic bearing exorbitant fee for connectivity . Faced with growing outside insistence , the company isfinally going to add together wifi hotspots and drop price — but not by much .

Internet in Cuba was expensive and rarified throughout the government ’s last bastion of communism . Now , Etecsa say it will install 35 wifi hotspot in parks and amateur areas around Cuba . price to connect will drop from the current price of $ 4 an hour to $ 2 an hour .

Since the median earnings in Cubais only about $ 20 a calendar month , that ’s still pretty all-fired expensive . Nevertheless , it ’s an advance over a duo year ago when there was just one net cafe in Old Havana . thing have been so bad there in late years that young Cubans have taken things into their own hands and built an elaborate mesh networkto make their own thriving belowground cyberspace . They also pass cyberspace subject matter around via USB sticks .

Jbl Cinema Sb170 2.1 Channel Soundbar

Things did get a little piece well earlier this twelvemonth , when Cuban creative person Kcho installed a gratis wireless fidelity hotspot in a Havana cultural center . ( That ’s a young Cuban — and apparently a fan of the United States — enjoying the free wifi see above . ) Of course , you ’d take to live in Havana or travel to Havana in club to enjoy the free connection . The fact that the government is finally connect the ease of the island is an encouraging step forward .

All that say , it ’s undecipherable exactly how quickly the Cuban government activity will conduct the expanding upon and how well the connections will actually work . “ Their theoretical account was , ‘ Nobody gets Internet , ’ ” Ted Hencken , a prof at Baruch College and expert on the Cuban cyberspace , told The New York Times . “ Now their model is , ‘ We ’re going to bring prices down and expand approach , but we are go to do it as a sovereign decision and at our own speed . ’ ” Regardless of how things pan out , some expensive internet is still better than no internet at all .

Image via AP

Lego Lord Of The Rings Balrog Book Nook