Internet access in Cuba

Buenas Dias

We’ve since returned from Cuba. You may be wondering why the post-trip blogging.

Well, Internet service is a precious gift and not nearly as abundant in Cuba as in other countries. In fact, Cuba boasts one of the slowest connection speeds in the entire world. Using a satellite connection (as the new Venezuelan fiber optic cable is not officially being used) the entire country shares an estimated 245 Mb/s connection speed. For perspective, that is the equivalent of the home connection bandwidth shared by about ten apartments in a D.C. apartment building.

            To ration this resource, connection preference is given to academics, journalists, the government, hospitals, and tourists. This follows a best usage rationale, where people demonstrate a need for the Internet for business purposes (like an academic researching) and then get a level of access to address their need.

A professor at the University of Havana explained in her lecture that her home connection is split in a router with many other professors. This is a dial-up connection. She often finds that important work is done best in the middle of the night because fewer people are trying to work online. Much like sharing a router with roommates, if too many professors try to access the Internet the connection can take hours to do even the simplest of tasks.

This kind of access provided through the government is completely free for the users. Professors at the University of Havana do not pay for either their home access or the access in the office. Other people without the good fortune of having approved access through their place of employment, must find their access in other means. Less than 14% of Cubans have ever used the Internet.

For non-employment access it is very difficult to use as the price is very expensive and largely accessing the Internet lies beyond control choke-points. 

The main choke-point of internet access in Cuba is the currency itself. Cuban Convertible Currency (CUC) is designated for foreigners and people working in the tourism industry.  It is worth about equal to a US Dollar. The Cuban people are supposed to use Cuban Pesos which are worth 1/24^th a CUC. Internet cannot be purchased in Cuba using Pesos.  This means even if someone had saved enough local currency to access the internet, the internet café would not let them purchase time on a computer.

One of the biggest black markets in Cuba is the use of CUC by Cuban nationals to gain access to the internet and purchase other goods currently rationed by the Cuban government.  It is very expensive for a Cuban person to buy time on the internet at a hotel, as the prices are slated for wealthy tourists.

To remedy this, some embassies (particularly members of the European Union) and the United States Interests Section of the Swiss Embassy, offer free access to the public. The problem is that even this access may mean reserving a 2 ½ hour block of time over 2 months in advance to use the Internet.  

The sad irony in Cuba is that as one American University classmate updates a Facebook page and gchats with friends at home, somewhere else a professor is watching a digital hourglass as they download a journal article for class.

-Frances Cirenza