1/12/2015
Cuban Government to Offer Wi-Fi Service in City of Santiago Later This Month
HAVANA – Cuba, one of the countries with the lowest Internet penetration rates in the world, plans to start selling wireless Internet service in public areas at the end of this month, offering Wi-Fi connections in the eastern province of Santiago, a state Web site reported.
Etecsa, the state-owned telecommunications company that has a monopoly on the island, will offer Wi-Fi service for the first time in the Caribbean nation, where only some professionals, such as journalists, doctors and lawyers, can receive government permission to have Internet service at home, the Cuban Journalists’ Union, or UPEC, said in a post on its Web site.
“Via Wi-Fi service, users will be able to upload and download files at a speed that at first will be one megabyte per second and will cost $4.50 (dollars) per hour,” the UPEC said.
The Wi-Fi system will be installed around Ferreiro Park in Santiago, where users “will be able to surf the Internet using personal devices, such as phones, tablets and laptops,” the UPEC said.
Cubans currently access the Internet at salons equipped with servers, paying $4.50 per hour for the service, a rate out of reach for the majority of the people on the island, where the average monthly salary is $20 to $30.
Etecsa officials said in late December that they planned to expand Internet access in 2015 at the salons, which have grown to 154 across the country since their launch in the summer of 2013, as well as to provide public Wi-Fi service.
The announcement on Saturday that public Wi-Fi service would be rolled out in Santiago came less than a month after U.S. President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, announced on Dec. 17 that they planned to normalize relations.
source
Cuban Government to Offer Wi-Fi Service in City of Santiago Later This Month
HAVANA – Cuba, one of the countries with the lowest Internet penetration rates in the world, plans to start selling wireless Internet service in public areas at the end of this month, offering Wi-Fi connections in the eastern province of Santiago, a state Web site reported.
Etecsa, the state-owned telecommunications company that has a monopoly on the island, will offer Wi-Fi service for the first time in the Caribbean nation, where only some professionals, such as journalists, doctors and lawyers, can receive government permission to have Internet service at home, the Cuban Journalists’ Union, or UPEC, said in a post on its Web site.
“Via Wi-Fi service, users will be able to upload and download files at a speed that at first will be one megabyte per second and will cost $4.50 (dollars) per hour,” the UPEC said.
The Wi-Fi system will be installed around Ferreiro Park in Santiago, where users “will be able to surf the Internet using personal devices, such as phones, tablets and laptops,” the UPEC said.
Cubans currently access the Internet at salons equipped with servers, paying $4.50 per hour for the service, a rate out of reach for the majority of the people on the island, where the average monthly salary is $20 to $30.
Etecsa officials said in late December that they planned to expand Internet access in 2015 at the salons, which have grown to 154 across the country since their launch in the summer of 2013, as well as to provide public Wi-Fi service.
The announcement on Saturday that public Wi-Fi service would be rolled out in Santiago came less than a month after U.S. President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, announced on Dec. 17 that they planned to normalize relations.
source
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