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Roundup: Cuba to expand Wi-Fi access to private homes, businesses

Xinhua, February 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Cuba's state telecom firm Etecsa plans to launch a pilot program in 2016 to expand Wi-Fi internet service to private homes and small businesses, a company official said on Monday.

The program will spread access to homes and businesses in two neighborhoods in the historic district, said Odalys Rodriguez, director of Etecsa's Havana Division. In the capital Havana, Wi-Fi is currently available at several city parks and public spaces.

Wi-Fi will be supplied through fiber optic cables, thanks to an agreement with Chinese company Huawei, according to the Cuban News Agency (ACN).

At the same time, another 30 new public Wi-Fi hotspots will be added to the existing 17 in Havana, as part of the government's commitment to boosting internet access nationwide, Rodriguez said.

Etecas's strategy is to grow its mobile service, "because that is the future," he said, adding some 60 cell towers in Havana will be repaired and another 69 stations installed.

Cubans have limited access to the internet, in large part because the U.S.-led trade embargo bars the country from connecting to undersea fiber optic cables that run around the island. In 2012, Venezuela came to its aid with a far more expensive option, connecting the island by cable from Venezuela. Since then, President Raul Castro administration has gradually improved internet access throughout the island.

In June 2013, authorities opened the first of some 700 internet cafes across the country, and began to offer limited email access via mobile phones.

A year later Etecsa began offering Wi-Fi in public parks and plazas, a service successively expanded in all provinces through 58 wireless zones in major cities. Prices, however, can be steep for Cubans, at 2 U.S. dollars per hour.

Through these Wi-Fi spots, more than 150,000 Cubans have daily access to the internet, but few homes do. In 2013, only 3.4 percent of Cuban households had Internet access, according to figures from the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Home internet connections are mainly available to government officials, certain professionals, such as journalists and doctors, and foreigners residing in the country.

The expansion plan coincides with the restoration of diplomatic ties between Havana and Washington, and the relaxation of some trade restrictions.

The first business agreement between Cuba and the United States following the thaw in relations was a communications deal in February 2014 between Etecsa and the New Jersey firm IDT Telecom, allowing direct telephone connection between the two countries, which was cut off half a century ago.

A week ago a U.S. delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Sepulveda visited Cuba to discuss the limitations of internet access with local authorities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported. Endi