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Cuba surpasses 1,000 public spots for Internet access

Xinhua, September 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

Cuba has surpassed 1,000 public spots for Internet access, particularly through Wi-Fi connections in parks, recreational places and sporting venues.

This program has substantially increased the nation's connectivity rate, which is considered to be one of the lowest in Latin America and the Caribbean.

According to Cuban state telecom company ETECSA, the 200 Wi-Fi areas set up so far along with those in public cybercafés, hotels, airports and other places add up to 1,006 spots across in the island.

"Last year, we installed 65 Wi-Fi spots in the country. So far in 2016, we have reached 135 which shows the state's will to increase Internet connectivity in Cuba," said Luis Diaz, ETECSA's director of communications.

In an interview published on Thursday with local newspaper Juventud Rebelde, Diaz said that these public spots have "great acceptance" among the population, who are eager to access the web.

Cubans must buy cards or recharge their permanent Internet accounts at a cost of 2 CUC an hour (2 U.S. dollars) to connect to the web, an amount that is very high as the average salary for a state worker is around 24 U.S. dollars per month.

Diaz added that Cuba sees around 250,000 connections daily through Wi-Fi spots which take up about 1.6 gigabytes of bandwidth, half of Cuba's total capacity for Internet access.

Cuba's Internet connections were only via satellite until 2013, leading to high costs but fiber optic cable connections to Venezuela and Jamaica have since begun providing higher connectivity speeds and new development possibilities.

The ETECSA official said the most mentioned demands by the population are to have an Internet connection on cellphones and at home, projects on which the Cuban company is working along with international telecommunication providers.

Currently, ETECSA offers email services on cellphones using 2G data, with over 1.1 million Cubans using this service. Enditem