Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (ETECSA), Cuba's state-run service provider, is getting ready to bridge the country's long-standing Internet divide with plans to extend ADSL-based Internet services to residential homes by the end of 2014.
"We're thinking of reaching homes with ADSL technology," Jorge Legra, ETECSA's director of strategic programs, told Agencia EFE. "We're trying to drop telephone access, since besides its poor quality; the telephone network is not designed for this kind of access."
This service expansion follows the government's move last month to offer Internet access at 118 ETECSA outlets around the island. However, the $4.50 per hour usage price is far more than what an average resident in Cuba can pay.
Before it offered the service at the outlets, Internet access was only available at select institutions and to tourists at 200 luxury hotels. Even with these new initiatives, only 2.6 million of Cuba's 11.2 million citizens can get Internet access, and those that can may only view state-controlled websites.
Cuba's Internet expansion efforts have emerged after it activated its ALBA-1 submarine cable link to Venezuela in January. With this new submarine cable link in place, the country won't have to depend on slow satellite connections to access the Internet.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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