Cubans Say Prices Too High at New Internet Centers

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=797025&CategoryId=14510

HAVANA – Cubans had their first experience Tuesday of the island’s new Web browsing services with the opening of 118 new Internet centers nationwide, though the price of being online was still too expensive for most citizens.

That was the chief complaint that several users expressed to Efe after trying out the new services at centers in Havana.

An hour online costs the equivalent of $4.50.

“You can surf the Web fine, but it’s pretty expensive,” said Roy, a young computer technician who accessed his page on Facebook at a downtown center in Old Havana.

Noel Antunez, 53, had a similar impression – he had just returned to Cuba after working several years in Cape Verde where, he recalled, an hour on the Internet at any center cost less than 1 euro ($1.30).
With regard to the quality, these same users agreed that surfing speed is very good and that they had no problem accessing the Web sites they wanted to visit.
------------------------------------

So it appears the cost of the internet use is based on the dollar equivalent and not on the local currency. Looks like someone was trying to mislead us. I suppose the reply we'll hear is something like "some people say the cost of the internet is too high"

[naaman fletcher]

1. As we discussed before

You gotta check everything with certain people.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. Yes, some have a high proclivity for knowingly making false statements

I understand they have a desire to see a successful marxist or at least socialist state in latin america, and they are not enamored with the US but the blatant lying is easily enough uncovered.

[Mika]

7. Well, then uncover whatever you think is false.

The posted article does not make clear the currency conversion the article is using.
The equivalent of CUC or CUP?
Simply calling me a liar isn't "uncovering" anything - except your standard of discourse.
So which is it that the article is using, CUC or CUP? It is not mentioned.

Also, I should mention that the pricing I was discussing in another thread was for a home based account, not a kiosk.

[Bacchus4.0]

8. the article clearly states its the $4.50 an hour

its pretty simple.


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.

[Mika]

9. I went thru the differing conversions in another thread.

The article in this thread doesn't indicate which conversion rate is being used. I suspect its the same bad journalism as the article in the other thread I was discussing this.

You've called me a liar w/o any substantiation. Please substantiate which currency conversion is used in this article -CUC or CUP- or fuck off. OK?

[Bacchus4.0]

10. here you go

the gentlemen interviewed in the article said that in Cape Verde the price is less than $1.30 and he was complaining about how expensive it was when he returned to Cuba.

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

“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.”

does not that clear it up for you? Its not really that hard since one convertible Peso is 1 dollar. You know what you can do now.

[joshcryer]

13. It's good to know the source for these quotes.

And remember when they turned on the internet in Havana there was an instant improvement in speeds (no longer was the satellite link used): http://www.democraticunderground.com/11088438#post8

[joshcryer]

11. I would like to see socialism actually attempted.

But I don't see it in the places where it is most touted.

[Daniel537]

3. Indeed they are, but what do you prefer?

Nothing at all? The prices will eventually start coming down. Same thing that happened with cellphones. Much too expensive at first, now just about anybody you meet in Havana has one. Besides, there are more people than you think who have the money to use these cafes.

[naaman fletcher]

4. Cuba is not a free market

Cell Phone prices came down because the cell phone market was a free one (well, the manufacture of them is anyway).

Cuban internet prices are set by the government.

[Daniel537]

5. I was referring to the cell phone market in Cuba when the govt. started selling them.

The prices were very expensive at first, and they started coming down over time. Same thing with the plans and minutes they offer, again, also govt. run. These are not fixed prices. They will come down over time.

[naaman fletcher]

6. Oh I'm sorry.

Got it.

[joshcryer]

12. Only people who can use the cafes are those with exiled Cubans in Miami.

They send money back to Cuba so Cuba has a three class system. Those without relatives abroad to send them money (mostly black Cubans), those with relatives abroad who send them money, and the status quote elites who run the country.

Getting internet across the island would be very easily facilitated with wireless bridges.

Millions of Cubans are already on the Cuban intranet (a network of computers that can interface each other but not the internet at large). If the system was even remotely robust you could put a bridge on it and all those millions of Cubans would have instant internet access. Mika tells me the infrastructure isn't able to be adapted that easily. If that's the case then it's quite archaic.

[Socialistlemur]

14. I'll ask a friend about the Cuban Internet structure.

I know a Cuban who goes to Cuba with literature packed in small chips, software, and the cards to hook up to satellite transmissions. I don't see te guy much because we play in the same basketball league and its summer, but if I run into him I'll ask him about the way the Cuban Internet works.

These regimes with controlled Internet are fighting a battle they can't win. And Cuba has a huge vacuum which pulls information from outside. They got too many Cubans traveling and they can't stop the flood of information. I bet withn three years they'll change and even have elections and everything.

[joshcryer]

15. The intranet has been growing in spades.

So I'm skeptical that it can't be plugged into the internet. I think that the Cuban government has yet to figure out what to do about the information flow that the internet would facilitate.

[Bacchus4.0]

16. Cuba to open public Internet outlets – at 4.50 dollars an hour

http://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2013/6/2013_06_10_ips_cuba_internet.html

Cuba: U.S. gives nod to oil drilling off CubaHAVANA, May 28 2013 (IPS) - Cuba will continue to prioritise public Internet access over connectivity in private homes, as indicated by a government announcement Tuesday that 118 new public cyber salons would open nationwide as of early June.

The new Internet outlets were reportedly made possible by the “full functioning” of a fibre optic cable laid between Cuba and Venezuela.


The government-controlled press reported on a communications ministry resolution Tuesday that said one hour online in the new outlets would cost the equivalent of 4.50 dollars, payable in 4.50 CUCs or convertible pesos, to which only a small part of the Cuban population of 11.2 million has access.

That amount is equivalent to 108 Cuban pesos, the currency earned by most Cubans. “I cannot possibly afford that on my pension of 270 pesos a month,” retired journalist and university professor Enrique López Oliva told IPS.

-------------------
those who try to confuse gringo readers with claims that internet use can be paid with Cuban Toilet Paper can fuck off, ok?

[reorg]

17. sounds like good news for tourists

quick and easy access to their email accounts and no longer dependent on slow and expensive hotel connections.

I hope the Cuban government makes enough money with these new Internet centers to soon open other ones where Cubans get Internet access for free.

[Bacchus4.0]

18. still expensive though at $4.50, In Ecuador, Wi-Fi is abundantly free in restaurants, pubs,

hotels, coffee houses. Colombia the same and I assume in all the modern progressive countries in latin america. Internet cafe is $1/hr in Ecuador. Not a dollar divided by 25,000 old sucres and indexed comparatively to US vs. Ecuadorian median salaries.

[reorg]

19. maybe now, but when I was in Ecuador just a few years ago

it was still much more expensive, and they had terribly slow connections even in Quito, not to mention somewhat, but not entirely remote places like Baños and Bahia de Caraquez.

No, these new places in Cuba will be very good news for tourists, especially potential ones like myself, who, I have to admit, always hesitated to go there for fear of being disconnected for a while from their electronic contacts.

[Bacchus4.0]

20. not my experience at all in Ecuador and I was just in Ba~nos

again, just a month ago. Many internet cafes, $1 an hour. I never noticed the connections being particularly slow. wI_FI free in the places I stayed. OK, the internet in Cuba is a very good thing absolutely particulary those who don't mind paying $4.50 an hour.

[reorg]

21. I said "a few years ago"

before they had high speed connections. That Cuba is a few years behind in this regard is not exactly a revelation, and everybody knows why.

10 years ago I happened to be in South India, when they first laid fiber optic cables. I saw them digging the ditches everywhere. One hour in an Internet café was $3-5 at the time, depending on the location, and the connection was extremely slow and unreliable. And don't even get me started about Internet connections in Ghana at the time, at a similar price. Do you think the average Indian and Ghanaian low-income earner could afford this? Times have changed, and it looks like they are going to change in Cuba now, too.

[Bacchus4.0]

23. yep, changing times would be good for Cuba

Internet cafes have been ubiquitous in latin america for well over a decade. And always been cheap. And now Wi-Fi is quite widespread which is free. Time to get out of the 1950s Cuba.

[reorg]

25. yawn

no, not for well over a decade. And they have not always been "cheap", i.e. affordable for the average person. You have either not been there at the time or you're just making up stuff.

Cuba is years behind, everyone knows why. Thanks to support from Venezuela, though, times ARE changing, and I'll be happy to contribute when I'm there as a tourist, paying the exact same price for better service than I did in many countries less than a decade ago.

[Bacchus4.0]

31. OMG!! Internet has been wide spread in Latin America since at least 2000

and it was never expensive. The cafes are always busy especially back then when there were fewer personal computers, and no wi-fi, and no cell phone internet. Its never been expensive because people simply would not have been able to pay. You don't know what you are talking about.

[reorg]

34. Oh, I forgot! It's never been expensive!1!! There connections are the best!"

Sure. Since 2000, pretty much everyone in Latin America had a fast, always working internet connection at rock-bottom prices. Only in Cuba, evil dictators prevented this from happening. And now, after being cowed by the US who finally managed to force an internet connection on Cuba, they are charging a fortune! Just to demonstrate what evil bastards they are.

The many hours I stayed in Internet cafés in Ecuador waiting for DU or my Yahoo account to show up on the screen must have been a figment of my imagination. Nowhere did they ever charge anything close to the 4.50 CUC in Cuba.

For comparison, rates in Honduras' Internet Cafés today (I wonder what they charged 10 years ago, probably nothing): one hour from 1 to 4 USD, if charged per minute, up to 6 USD per hour, in one café the charge is 15 USD per hour. Naturally, everyone in Honduras can afford it.

http://www.worldembassyinformation.com/world-cyber-cafe/cyber-cafe-in-honduras.html
http://thisishonduras.com/Economy.htm

Internet users worldwide:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_Internet_users



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/InternetPenetrationWorldMap.svg

[naaman fletcher]

22. It's pretty much free everywhere in panama too nt

[Bacchus4.0]

24. I really do get impression that people think Latin America is populated

by 500,000,000 Juan Valedez's serving 5,000,000 nasty rich people.

[naaman fletcher]

26. Well remember

A few years ago when a certain poster here said they don't have cell phones?

[Mika]

27. A certain poster also said that Castro had banned pressure cookers.

[naaman fletcher]

28. Wasn't me. Nt

[Mika]

29. I know. It was another regular anti Cuba poster in this forum.

[Socialistlemur]

32. If they said that they must be anti Castro

Anybody who says Castro banned pressure cookers must be anti Castro. But I don't think they could be said to be anti Cuba. Cuba is not Castro and viceversa.

I did read a Fidel Castro essay which some said amounted to a call for the end of the ethanol industry. It seems like when the old geezer writes, everybody listens in Cuba.

[Bacchus4.0]

30. Cuba lifts ban on computer and DVD player sales

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/03/13/us-cuba-reforms-idUSN1329909720080313

An internal government memo seen by Reuters on Thursday said the appliances long desired by Cubans can go on sale immediately, although air conditioners will not be available until next year and toasters until 2010 due to limited power supplies.

-----------------
It also listed television sets, which were already on sale, electric pressure cookers and rice cookers, electric bicycles, car alarms and microwave ovens.

-------------------------------

Cubans were delighted with the prospect of being able to buy items such as microwave ovens and air conditioners that were previously only available as stolen goods on the black market.

----------
The sale of many electric appliances was banned in the 1990s when the collapse of the Soviet Union deprived Cuba of billions of dollars in subsidies and oil supplies, resulting in an energy crunch and daily blackouts of as long as 18 hours.

[Socialistlemur]

33. Maybe Cuba will import natural gas from the USA someday.

Electric appliances aren't very practical if the fuel used to generate electricity is fuel oil. I bet Cuba could benefit if they could import natural gas from the USA, which is already setting up to export to Mexico. I wonder if they have wind power?