- alejandro rodriguez
- Special for BBC World
image source, AFP
ETECSA, Telecommunications Company of Cuba SA, is in charge of providing Internet access to Cubans.
I am one of those Cubans who connects to the internet through the Nauta service, an email service offered at exorbitant prices by the only telecommunications company operating in Cuba (ETECSA).
ETECSA’s connection is quite fast (one could say «normal»), but taking into account the current rate—4.50 CUC per hour (about US$5), and also that it is the only legal opportunity to access the internet for citizens, the cases in which someone makes extensive, recreational or relaxed use of this service are very rare.
In the city where I live, Camagüey, there are about 350,000 inhabitants and less than 10 places where navigation rooms operate: from the largest located on the main commercial artery, to the smallest with a single computer enabled in a peripheral neighborhood .
I usually go online for 13 minutes a couple of times a week.
With 1 CUC (US$0.90) you can buy 13 minutes of connection, and suffer the worst anguish in front of the quartet of red numbers that are counting seconds in the lower right corner of the screen.
image source, AFP
13 minutes of connection cost 1 CUC (US$0.90).
One becomes an honorary member of the bomb squad there: a nervous decoder trying to finish his job before something explodes.
I, for example, always sweat; I sweat even though the wall air conditioner sets it to 10 degrees Celsius.
I do not doubt then that in the current circumstances one day the frequent dream of the plummet will be changed in the subconscious of the «boater» by one that includes red, flashing numbers; and that the new erotic dream is an account that announces the availability of 500 hours of connection…
The possibility of transferring balances from one telephone to another and the extension to homes and mobiles of Internet browsing are some of the services and facilities that people (patiently) expect from Cuba’s exclusive telecommunications provider.
However, the company’s customers are already used to distrusting it and its announcements of improvements.
At the beginning of this year, for example, they declared that in July they would lift the obligation to recharge the personal balance with 5 CUC each month, but already 2014 almost died of old age and no news from ETECSA.
image source, AFP
Most users don’t know how to navigate «efficiently».
In the navigation rooms there are never many people. Rarely does one stumble upon the impossibility of sitting down. In one of them I have «reserved space». I can arrive the same at 9 in the morning, at 12 noon or at 5 in the afternoon, and that is like «Stainof Sheldon Cooper in the series Big Bang Theory.
It also happens that the chair is right under the air conditioning, and since here we are adapted to the massive roasting of tropical streets, people flee from the cold.
Have you tried checking your Facebook and Twitter profiles, email and two or three news pages in just 13 minutes? reading this comment will probably take you half that time.
Imagine that the connection that you enjoy now costs you US$4.50 per hour, imagine that you cannot have it at home, but have to travel to certain established places to connect only at certain times, and also imagine that your monthly income does not reach US$50 : Well, that’s more or less how many Cubans feel about the internet.
And I say many because the vast majority don’t even know him, so they have no idea what we’re talking about here.
Without fear of being wrong, I can assure you that the majority of national users of the Nauta service do not comment on the pages they read: in other words, that of web 2.0, interactivity and «prosumer» (consumer/content producer) is too big for the common surfer.
image source, AFP
Flash or USB memories are widely used in Cuba to store and share information.
I know it because I live it, and because I see it: «ejaconnection» affects almost everyone in the room early. Most users don’t know how to navigate «efficiently»: opening many tabs at once in the browser and typing URLs as fast as your fingers will let you.
I open the pages and download them to a flash drive or USB: the challenge is to take as much information as I can with me, so that later, at home, offline and calmly, I can interact intellectually and almost modern with it.
Of course, there is always the wealthy little guy who calmly goes to the navigation rooms, or the Chinese cell phone dealer who charges 10 CUC to an unfortunate man on the street to later download a driver in a few minutes, but those are the least: the fundamentals of this story, which are usually those who get more than they invest from each connection, or a handful of lucky ones who are rained with dollars from abroad.
To me and my fleeting 13 minutes—why deny it—stallions give me damn envy!
Alejandro Rodríguez is a young Cuban entrepreneur, who left journalism to dedicate himself to his private business. He lives in Camagüey, a province in the center of the island.