Greg's Corner

Has Cuba opened the internet for all?

Here in America, many of us are glued to our screens for most of the day. Whether it’s for work, entertainment, or talking with friends we’re accessing the internet as if it was some magical unlimited resource. We even use it in remote places that in previous generations had trouble getting electrical or phone services. Now, imagine being only a few miles away from one of the world’s more cosmopolitan areas and only being able to use the internet for at most a couple of hours a day and you can only use it in certain areas that aren’t necessarily convenient to get to. That’s how the country of Cuba has been using its limited access to the internet.

Yesterday, the Cuban government announced that it would be lifting the restrictions on having private wifi networks. The law is scheduled to take effect on July 29th. Previously, Cuban citizens could only access the internet in public wifi hotspots set up by the government that were usually in parks or on street corners. In order to use these hotspots, people would need to buy access cards that allows someone to use the internet for an hour for a fee. The current fee sits at $1 an hour.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tYSaqrBh7c%5D

However, this doesn’t mean that Cuban citizens will start enjoying the internet the same way that we do. There is only one internet service provider in the country and it’s run by the Cuban government. In order to be able to use wifi in your home, you would still need to set up an antenna to access the public hotspots for your home router to access and would still need to buy the hourly access cards. While this isn’t the biggest leap forward for internet users in the Caribbean nation it is at least a step in the right direction.