Cuba to increase unrestricted Internet access at new outlets

[Bacchus4.0]

http://news.yahoo.com/cuba-increase-unrestricted-internet-access-outlets-171141816.html

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba will begin offering broader Internet access next month through 118 outlets around the country, according to a decree in the government's Official Gazette on Tuesday, in a step long awaited by many Cubans.

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The decree made clear that the new Internet access would be closely monitored, warning users it could not be used to "endanger or prejudice public security, or the integrity and sovereignty of the nation."

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While Cubans will have greater, unrestricted access to the Internet, it will still be too expensive for most of them, the equivalent of $4.50 an hour in a country where the average monthly salary amounts to $20.

Cuba was connected to a fiber-optic communication cable from close ally Venezuela in 2011, which the government has been testing in recent months but still not put into wide use.

[Mika]

1. Just love the manipulated currency conversions.

Pathetic doggerel. Switching from CUC to CUP in the same sentence w/o any indication of doing so.

[Socialistlemur]

2. So what's the real cost? I have Cuban friends I can ask them

I'd like to know what the cost is, and whether its free or censored like in china. If its expensive and it's censored, then Cuba remains a banana dictatorship with media censorship.

[Mika]

4. here

The CUC is the convertible Cuban Peso used by tourists - $1US = 1 CUC.
The CUP is the Cuban Peso used by Cubans in Cuba - it is is 26X the value of CUC.

Ignorance of this differing currency is often used deliberately to confound gringo readers.
The $4.50 mentioned in the article is measured in CUP, but wrongly evaluated as US$ 1/1 CUC. It is actually 4 pesos and 50 centavos CUP.
The so-called $20 monthly average salary again uses the 1/1 CUC incorrectly, but inversely here. It is actually around 520 CUP (or 26X CUC).
It is pure misdirection/disinformation in naming apples as oranges.
Of course, if one has never seen or heard of an orange it would be easy to pull off such sophistry - just as many Americans are ignorant of the difference in CUC and CUP.

To add some context, a ticket for a Cuban baseball playoff game is around 5 centavos CUP (or, about $1.30 CUC) - hot dogs not included.

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Access to the internet has been severely restricted because Cuba could not connect to the Cisco owned fiberoptic Caribbean trunk because of Helms-Burton - as well as other infrastructure purchases prohibited by US sanctions upon Cuba. This created severe bandwidth problems, so, Cuba had to prioritize access - Gov't, medical, educational. In that order.
Now, there is a new WWW fiberoptic connection via Venezuela - building out a complete high speed internet infrastructure will take some time - especially with the US sanctions still in place.

[joshcryer]

5. Do you have a cite for that?

$0.17 an hour would obviously be a good deal and not that bad in the end (still fairly expensive for a Cuban but not insane like the other number).

Basically can I see CUP internet rates listed somewhere?

Frankly it should be free and I do not consider Cuba communist since they use money, but your mileage may vary on that count.

[Mika]

6. The CUP isn't traded or converted or used anywhere but Cuba.

You can do google searches to find the CUC conversion rates for dollars, euros, and some other currencies.
Only tourists in Cuba use the CUC.
Only Cuban citizens in Cuba use the CUP.

[joshcryer]

8. So when they say $4.50 you are sure that they mean CUP?

They say "equivalent of $4.50."

I do recall that normal Cuban citizens weren't being allowed to use tourist internet but that changed. They may in fact be going by the tourist rate, which would be, literally, $4.50.

[Mika]

10. My S.O.'s 80+ yr old aunt just came from Cuba yesterday for a visit.

I asked her on the way from the airport how much the internet costs. Just under 100 pesos per month was what she said.
She has a laptop that her Miami family gave her. Still, it is expensive.

[joshcryer]

14. 1/5th of ones entire income is indeed expensive.

But that's a shitload better than the original number.

[Mika]

20. Just found out that that rate is for under 65 years old.

Over 65 years old, and the internet account and browsing is free - as are most things for the 65+ year olds in Cuba.

[Bacchus4.0]

22. nope, thats not it. Its $4.50 or 112 Cuban n/t

s

[Socialistlemur]

11. Don't need high speed

The Cuban regime seems prone to controlling the Cuban people's information flow. After all they are a stalinesque dictatorship. But I bet in time they will lose power. They are moving to copy the Chinese, eventually they'll face a workers' revolution.

[dipsydoodle]

18. eventually they'll face a workers' revolution ?

Dream on.

[Bacchus4.0]

21. nope, its 112 CUP

“I don’t see how I could surf the Internet or open an account on Facebook with a salary of 375 pesos. One hour on the Internet would cost me 112 pesos, nearly a third of my salary,” she says. “I guess that some people could. But the majority is not going to stop eating just to connect to the Internet.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2013/0604/Internet-access-to-expand-in-Cuba-at-a-price

[joshcryer]

3. I only see USD equivalents there.

One of the main objections to the Cuban bloggers / dissidents is that, apparently, they are able to afford to tweet and whatnot while the cost to do so is highly prohibitive. So it'd be interesting to have it both ways in the argument. ie, internet doesn't cost anything in Cuba but then again it costs a lot and the Cuban bloggers are paid by USAID / CIA. Then I've heard the argument that the intranet in Cuba is so archaic it can't be hooked up to the internet at large. So it's all over the place really.

[Bacchus4.0]

7. I am looking forward to having Cubans come on DU and discussing the wonders of marxism

and how to live on $20/month.

[joshcryer]

9. I'm hoping for that eventuallity, too.

I am in contact with some but our conversations are blog based and I post anonymously, I know that my disdain for state-capitalist Cuba wouldn't go over so well for the Cuban elites and it would hurt those Cubans talking to me. I would hope a forum or chat room would be more open for real time discussion where people can speak their minds freely. That's where you start to understand someone.

It's a rare event where I post anonymously online because I don't like anonymity. It tends to bring out peoples' shitty sides. Just look at all the posters here anonymously being nasty to us for posting facts.

[Socialistlemur]

12. I suppose some Cuban bloggers are paid, but some sell adds

I read Yoani Sanchez and she does have adds..and I bet many Cubans get money from relatives to pay their bills. I know in some places they got USA satellite TV and they bootleg it to their neighbours.

[joshcryer]

13. Obama mostly lifted the restrictions on donations.

And the Cuban blogs hosted on Wordpress or Blogger in Spanish do not have ads. And even if they did, they wouldn't be able to get paid for them.

The English translations of those blogs may have ads but that's Miami exiles probably trying to profit off of Cuban bloggers.

The real issue is that Miami exiles have been first class citizens when it comes to Cuba for too long.

[Socialistlemur]

15. Seems to me it would be easy to get paid

Just have the money deposited in a USA dollar account. A friend can open it then send the money to Cuba. I think the Cuban regime likes to use a fairly constant messaging: all Cubans opposed to the regime are on the USA payroll. It's more likely they get private money from family and friends abroad. Evidently the regime creates fiction and its believed by pro Castro sympathizers outside, but I don't go for propaganda.

[Mika]

16. LOL. It is US policy that prevents financial transactions, not Cuba's.

This is why US payment to Cuban tel-co is deposited in escrow accounts.
There are some transactions that are fully legal, as approved by the Dept of Treasury.
This is NOT Cuba's policy, so, your doggerel isn't applicable.
Also, Cubans in Cuba know the difference between domestic and foreign funded "opposition". Generally speaking, it is the American policy apologists who don't know (or choose not to contemplate or speak of it).

[joshcryer]

17. It's also why Yoani's PayPal account is closed.

Even though people bashing her like to say that she has a paypal account, etc.

And note: this policy does play into Cuban hands because they use the same arguments socialistlemur used. Saying things like, "How do these dissident bloggers have these sites?" Then they block those sites and use arguments like "we are implementing US law here."

[Mika]

19. Normalization would be the best policy on all fronts.

Status quo rules in order to maintain the financial interests of US corrupt politics. This also plays into the (often validated) propaganda of the Cuban regime.
Normalization would be the most popular, beneficial, and pro democratic move to make. Alas, it won't happen soon.