HAVANA, July 29, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – All Cubans can now have Wi-Fi in their
homes, as the island’s government extends internet access even while trying
to maintain control over its version of the “truth” and to defend its
legitimacy, a top official tells AFP.
“Cubans support and defend the revolution in every domain, both in the real
and the virtual worlds,” Ernesto Rodriguez Hernandez, vice minister of
communications, said in an interview.
In his eyes, the internet and social media are tools to “position the truth
of Cuba, not to manipulate things,” giving them a key role in the political
and ideological battles being fought at a time of sharp diplomatic tensions
with the United States.
The telecommunications sector in Cuba — once one of the world’s least
connected countries — has doubtless changed more than any other in the past
year.
Since December, when mobile phones gained 3G connectivity, an active online
community has sprung up on social networks, often questioning the government
about the challenges of daily life on the island.
Since July 22, Cubans have been able to import routers, register their
equipment, and then create private Wi-Fi networks connected to signals from
state-controlled operator ETECSA. No longer do Cubans have to go to
centralized public sites to connect.
“The objective of the country is to provide wider and wider internet access
to the entire populace,” the vice minister said.
– Steep prices –
But the technical requirements set out by new legislation would appear to
put an end to the informal networks created in recent years by groups of
residents. Such control is the “sovereign right” of the Cuban state,
Hernandez says.
And connecting is not cheap — $1 an hour, an exorbitant amount in a
country where the average monthly salary is $50. The lowest 3G rate is $7 for
600 megabytes.
For weeks, hundreds of Cubans have been campaigning on social media under
the hashtag #Bajenlospreciosdeinternet (#Lower the price of the internet).
Since Wi-Fi’s arrival in 2013, “the cost of internet access has dropped by
a factor of four,” the vice minister says, adding that “it will continue to
fall” as communications infrastructure improves.
In this country of 11.2 million, 1,400 Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed,
80,000 homes now have internet access and 2.5 million Cubans have 3G
connectivity.
But the communist government is moving forward cautiously. “The technology
is not apolitical, as some try to present it,” Hernandez said, but instead is
“manipulated and used.”
Arguing for the need to “educate” the population, he added: “It does no
good to provide internet service to those who do not know… how to
distinguish between what is useful and what is harmful; not everything on the
internet is good.”
– ‘To protect’ Cuba –
A series of decrees and measures published in early July in the island’s
official Journal call for “responsible use by citizens” as well as both “the
political defense and cybersecurity in the face of threats, attacks and risks
of all sorts.”
The message is clear: the internet must be an “instrument for the defense
of the revolution,” under regulations to be enforced by the Communications
Ministry with the help of the “revolutionary armed forces and the Interior
Ministry.”
In short, the internet will continue to be closely monitored by the
authorities, as it has been from the start.
Only a small percentage of the Cuban population can access the global
internet, as opposed to the government-controlled national internet,
according to the NGO Freedom House. Blogs and websites critical of the
government are frequently blocked.
Hernandez defended that practice as normal.
“We don’t share those internet sites that can encourage discrimination or
deal with subjects that go against morality, ethics and responsible
behavior,” he said.
“It is a right of every state to protect its people and their society from
practices of that sort — and I believe that every country in the world does
so.”