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Mobile Internet Goes Free, National For a Day In Cuba (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the be-grateful-for-what-you-have dept.

More than 5 million cellphone users in Cuba received free internet on Tuesday, in an eight-hour test before the government launches sales of the service. The test marks the first time internet services were available nationwide. Reuters reports: Cuba is one of the Western Hemisphere's least connected countries. There are hundreds of Wi-Fi hotspots in Cuba but virtually no home penetration. Dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, considered the country's social media pioneer, raved that she had directly sent a tweet from her mobile. In another tweet, she called the test a "citizen's victory." On the streets of Havana, mobile users said they were happy about the day of free internet, even as some complained that connectivity was notably slower than usual.

Hotspots currently charge about $1 an hour although monthly wages in Cuba average just $30. The government has not yet said how much most Cubans would pay for mobile internet, or when exactly sales of the service will begin. But [the state-run telecommunications monopoly ETECSA] is already charging companies and embassies $45 a month for four gigabytes. Analysts have said broader Web access will ultimately weaken government control over what information reaches people in a country where the state has a monopoly on the media.

45 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Why should Cubans care? by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    According to Michael Moore they've got free and "incredible healthcare"......

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    1. Re: Why should Cubans care? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Because now they can hear how great communism is from a bunch of dumb American hipsters

    2. Re:Why should Cubans care? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      According to Michael Moore they've got free and "incredible healthcare"......

      You do realize, I hope, that a place can be good in some areas, such as basic health care, but weak in others such as internet availability. Different governments and communities may be better at different things.

      Does it say we in America are morally superior because it is easier to get good internet than basic healthcare, particularly if you don't have any money?

      Learn. If a country is good at something find out why. Can we use that knowledge to improve our own country? Can we improve on it? Too many in America ignore the rest of the world when trying to solve their own problems just assuming that solutions that worked there can never work here. I think at the highest levels this is encouraged because their are people profiting on the status quo.

      No one is suggesting we adopt Cuba's form of government. We can do a hell of a lot better than that, though right now I very much fear if we don't change course we will find out that we can do a hell of a lot worse than that too.

    3. Re:Why should Cubans care? by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      U.S. health care is pretty good all things considered, but a big part of the problem is that the U.S. is just terribly unhealthy. One-third of the country is obese (we consume more sugar per capita than anyone else, and we're almost 25% higher than the next country) and we're near the top of the lists for almost all types of hard drug use.

      The other problem is that our healthcare system is some terrible amalgamation that's the worst of a free market and worst of a national system cobbled together. When people get unhealthy, they don't want to get checkups early because they don't know what it will cost them. We don't have the free clinic visits of some countries that can nip a lot of expensive problems in the bud if dealt with early, but you can't possibly get a hospital or clinic to give you a price for any of their services before you buy. In some cases they don't even have that information.

      There's a public healthcare system in Medicare and Medicaid but it has its own problems and is too frequently abused by medical providers who make false charges. The private healthcare system isn't terribly great either since you can't go across state lines to buy insurance, so in some cases you're stuck with too few providers for reasonable competition to take place.

    4. Re:Why should Cubans care? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      U.S. health care is absolutely fucked. And it refuses to look at anything else because government is intentionally broken by rich people who don't want to pay it forward. Point out how much the wealthy in this country have benefited from government spending, infrastructure, security, R&D, etc., and they get very uncomfortable - because deep down, most of them know they were born on third base. 'Libertarians' always seem to be people who chose their parents well, but have achieved very little themselves.

    5. Re:Why should Cubans care? by johnsie · · Score: 1

      They do. They also don't need to read politically obsessed nu tjobs from the US airing their dirty underwear on every news article they read.

    6. Re:Why should Cubans care? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Insightful

      According to Michael Moore they've got free and "incredible healthcare"......

      You do realize, I hope, that a place can be good in some areas, such as basic health care, but weak in others such as internet availability.

      Except, of course, that isn't the case with Cuba. Nobody travels to Cuba to use the great healthcare. Because it isn't great.

    7. Re:Why should Cubans care? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      U.S. health care is pretty good all things considered, but a big part of the problem is that the U.S. is just terribly unhealthy. One-third of the country is obese (we consume more sugar per capita than anyone else, and we're almost 25% higher than the next country) and we're near the top of the lists for almost all types of hard drug use.

      Yes, I suppose not having enough food or enough money to buy drugs is one way to reduce those things. Onward to Venezuela/Cuba style government!

    8. Re:Why should Cubans care? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      No one is suggesting we adopt Cuba's form of government.

      I hate to be the one to break this to you, but a lot of people, especially in our universities, are suggesting exactly that. Distributing society's resources equally among all people is a highly attractive idea.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    9. Re:Why should Cubans care? by Junta · · Score: 1

      Yes, but Cuba doesn't really do that. That's the challenge with communism in practice, those in power to distribute it, distribute it unfairly to themselves.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    10. Re:Why should Cubans care? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Took 3 seconds to find. Tons of other references available. Why is there denialism about this issue? Hell, in 1989 Bernie Sanders traveled to Cuba on a trip organized by the Center for Cuban Studies, a pro-Castro group based in New York, hoping to come away with a "balanced" picture of the country. The late, legendary Vermont journalist Peter Freyne sighed that Sanders "came back singing the praises of Fidel Castro."

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    11. Re:Why should Cubans care? by ljw1004 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Cuba is down to 33rd in the world in life expectancy.

      That's terrible - only one notch above the USA, at 34th in the world!

    12. Re:Why should Cubans care? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      U.S. health care is pretty good all things considered

      U.S. healthcare is amazing when you can afford it and when you don't need it.

      I hear endless stories from friends and colleagues over there.
      Most of them are alive because of how great U.S. healthcare is
      Most of them are in financial or legal trouble because of how great U.S. healthcare is.

    13. Re:Why should Cubans care? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Except, of course, that isn't the case with Cuba. Nobody travels to Cuba to use the great healthcare. Because it isn't great."

      You're correct, for a third world nation it's fucking amazing.

      Context matters my friend.

      Cuba wasn't always a third world nation:

      Before the Revolution

      Prior to the Cuban Revolution, Cuba ranked fifth in the hemisphere in per capita income, third in life expectancy, second in per capita ownership of automobiles and telephones, first in the number of television sets per inhabitant. Its income per capita in 1929 was reportedly 41% of the US, thus higher than in Mississippi and South Carolina.

      Yep. Context matters.

    14. Re:Why should Cubans care? by skam240 · · Score: 2

      Your source begins with some random lone person stating in their post "The reason I am interested is because last semester 3 out of 5 of my professors were Marxist " and goes on from there with just more of that. A few lines down apparently "The entire anthropology department at Rutgers is Marxist. ".

      Your right wing reddit grief fest is just as convincing as Fox's War on Christmas. Shit, we don't even know what they mean by "Marxist". I see plenty of conservatives calling people communists for the slightest Left wing views.

      Basically, your anecdotal evidence is garbage. If this is "proof' to you of anything it certainly explains why you think radical Leftism is a major thing in the most Right wing first world nation on earth. Most of who I see referred to as "radical leftists" by conservatives in this country are called moderates in every other civilized country on the planet.

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    15. Re:Why should Cubans care? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      Cuba is down to 33rd in the world in life expectancy.

      That's terrible - only one notch above the USA, at 34th in the world!

      The US has a lot of subcultures.

      The ones you are dissing for low life expectancy are likely not the ones that you think you are dissing.

    16. Re:Why should Cubans care? by ljw1004 · · Score: 1

      The US has a lot of subcultures. The ones you are dissing for low life expectancy are likely not the ones that you think you are dissing.

      I honestly don't have a clue what you mean here!

    17. Re:Why should Cubans care? by Solandri · · Score: 1

      You don't need to afford health care in the U.S. to take advantage of it. By law, hospitals are required to treat anyone who walks into the emergency room with a genuine medical emergency, regardless of their ability to pay. That's part of the reason hospital bills are so high for patients who can pay - the hospitals have to pass their uncompensated losses onto their paying clients. Also, the vast majority of the country (around 90%) has health insurance, either self-bought or provided by their employer. It's been a legal requirement since 2010 to have insurance. Those who don't have it are breaking the law, and have only themselves to blame if they end up saddled with medical bills they can't afford.

      The bigger problems are a tendency for people to put off getting treatment until a problem becomes worse and more expensive to treat (because they don't want to be stuck with a bill for a doctor's visit), and corruption at the physician, insurance, litigation, and government level.

    18. Re:Why should Cubans care? by Thrakkerzog · · Score: 1

      I went there a few years back and the only fat people I saw were tourists. While this is not indicative of overall health, there are a lot of medical conditions revolving around obesity. Their medical facilities, equipment, and even medication are not up to par when compared to other countries, but they do a phenomenal job of working with what they do have, to the point where their average life expectancy is competitive with what we would consider "first world" countries.

      Also, their rum is amazing.

    19. Re:Why should Cubans care? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Cuba wasn't always a third world nation:

      Before the Revolution

      The World never had a 'Third World' country until Pandit Nehru coined the term. Being a Third World nation [i.e. a non-align one] used to be a compliment.

      The world is far more complicated now, and educated people shouldn't be using this expression. Even the US is a tad third-world-ish nowadays.

    20. Re:Why should Cubans care? by Thrakkerzog · · Score: 2

      (we consume more sugar per capita than anyone else, and we're almost 25% higher than the next country)

      This is actually kind of funny because, per capita, Cuban sugar consumption is through the roof. It's actually more than the average American, but Cuba is usually not included in those "top 10" list type things. See https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/b...

      Anyway, there's actually a reason for this. Before the fall of the USSR, Cuba had a deal with the Soviets where they would produce sugar in exchange for just about everything that Cuba wanted / needed -- meat, cars, televisions, you name it. They ramped up their sugar production and this worked, for a while, until the USSR collapsed and the trade stopped. They were left with huge amounts of sugar and a people who knew how to cultivate sugar. When your food supply dwindles and you have a lot of sugar, the obvious thing happens and people eat the sugar. I was told, while I was there, that people piled sugar on mango and pineapple to this day because they had grown used to eating such massive amounts of sugar.

      They are very active, though, which certainly puts them at an advantage over the average American.

    21. Re:Why should Cubans care? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      You sound very frustrated that nobody wants to listen to your far left views. Maybe you'd be happier in a country that shares your values - like Cuba.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    22. Re:Why should Cubans care? by _Sharp'r_ · · Score: 1

      Sorry, but most cuban health care facilities don't even have working toilets. Patients are instructed to bring their own supplies from home.

      They have a little bit of decent health care, but it's reserved for Communist Party elites and foreign visitors who can pay. Everyone else in the country gets lousy health care where after waiting forever to see someone, they have to hope they washed their hands by bringing in their own soap and water and didn't go near the atrocious conditions of the rooms.

      See also:
      http://blog.acton.org/archives...
      https://www.therealcuba.com/?p...
      https://www.nationalreview.com...
      https://www.washingtonexaminer...
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
      and many, many others with photos and videos documenting the real care there.

      --
      The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
    23. Re:Why should Cubans care? by skam240 · · Score: 1

      *slaps head, rolls eyes*

      What a clever child you are!

      Maybe if you can't handle contrary political opinions to your own you should fuck off out of America because that's what we're all about.

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    24. Re:Why should Cubans care? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      Even the US is a tad third-world-ish nowadays.

      Parts of it are; especially the parts we insist on importing from the third world. Which amazes nobody except the enthusiastic importers.

    25. Re:Why should Cubans care? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      You don't need to afford health care in the U.S. to take advantage of it.

      I didn't say people weren't treated because they couldn't afford it. I said they are in financial or legal trouble as a result of it.

      Also the health insurance of the 90% is useless. Many of the policies can't even cover basic things let alone serious accidents. Oh and don't you dare get something that requires ongoing treatment. Health insurances only like customers who don't claim.

      Anecdote: A colleage of mine got t-boned by someone who ran a red light. After the pathetically small insurance of the person at fault ran out the bills ran into his own insurance, when that didn't cover it either he had to lawyer up and take on his company's insurance as advised by the company itself since he was in a company car at the time.

      Oh you should see the premium on his car insurance now for daring to be in an accident caused by someone else.

      Your system is fucked. No sorry that's not right. Your system is fucking, it's you yourselfs being fucked.

    26. Re:Why should Cubans care? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      It's not a contrary political opinion, communism very openly states it must be the only political party in a country. Moreover it seeks to unite all countries under a single world government. It must be resisted at every turn. Anyone who advocates it needs to visit a communist country and see how well it works. In Cuba, there are no rich or poor. The government distributes society's resources equally. The fact that they don't have any resources to distribute should teach you something about communism, but I doubt it.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    27. Re:Why should Cubans care? by skam240 · · Score: 1

      "It's not a contrary political opinion, communism very openly states... "

      So you're a communist then? Will the wonders never cease! Don't care for communism myself but this is a free country despite what people like yourself have been telling me.

      And then you're telling me communism as an overall system doesn't work? I'd never state anything to the contrary but that's a strange thing for a communist to say.

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    28. Re:Why should Cubans care? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Wha? I'm not a communist, I'm an anti-communist. I don't really understand how you can confuse the two. Yes, communism has been tried at scales large and small and has failed every single time. Why else are you so reluctant to relocate to where you can live under communism? If it was so great, there would be people flocking to communist countries.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    29. Re:Why should Cubans care? by skam240 · · Score: 1

      If you follow the conversation back you fucked up on your lingustic negatives and postives and implied you were a communist.

      As for the rest, this conversation thread was never about communism in general until you decided it was out of nowhere. It was from the start about the Cuban healthcare system.

      When you went off topic I got bored and started making fun of you.

      Just a heads up for your war against communism by the way. The American communist party has an estimated membership of about 5,000 ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... ) which might as well be zero then as 5,000 isn't enough to do anything.

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    30. Re:Why should Cubans care? by skam240 · · Score: 1

      Shit, I got my threads all mixed up. Probably alf my last post doesnt make sense. Just ignore it.

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  2. Hotspots ... $1 an hour ... monthly wages ... $30 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Hotspots currently charge about $1 an hour although monthly wages in Cuba average just $30.

    WELCOME TO SOCIALISM, MOTHERFUCKER!

  3. Citizens' victory? by aglider · · Score: 1

    Welcome to the mobile widespread censorship and monitoring.
    If you'll be able to effectively use TOR, VPNs and full cryptography, then maybe you won.
    Otherwise, you lost.

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
    1. Re:Citizens' victory? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3

      I have to give it to you for the whataboutism in your last sentence. Not many people use whataboutism in its original sense, to deflect from the crimes of Communism, any more. But here's an example spotted in the wild. Pretty cool, actually.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  4. Re:Hotspots ... $1 an hour ... monthly wages ... $ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    France is that. Cuba has communistic politics and negro blues.

    Bullshit.

    France is capitalist.

    French regulation of the economy might be stricter than most capitalist countries, but on index of economic freedom, France ranks WAAAAY above Cuba. Hell, the EVUL CAPITALIST PIGGY United States ranks behind those free capitalistic societies in Denmark and Sweden!

  5. what will they change tourists for roaming? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    what will they change tourists for roaming?

    $15-$20 a meg (your cost not ATT's cost)

    1. Re:what will they change tourists for roaming? by Captain+Linger · · Score: 1
      Just got back a few weeks ago. There have been foreign networks in Cuba offering roaming for quite some time. And you're right, they're exceptionally expensive, around $2/meg.

      For what it's worth, the local Internet access is the same for tourists and locals (though the impact of that pricing is felt quite differently) at $1/hr. If anything this will certainly bring prices down across the board. Mobile phones have become incredibly popular, and $2/M is ludicrously prohibitive. If I had to guess, there'll be a low fee for an exceptionally capped personal plan.

  6. all hail the glorious communist revolution! by ooloorie · · Score: 1

    See how communism provides prosperity for everybody? Free Internet in Cuba! No need to work for it! Just compare that to the evil, capitalist, fascist West, where workers are forced to be exploited by their capitalist overlords like slaves for several hours each month just in order to be able to afford basic gigabit Internet service!

    .
    .
    .

    (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

    1. Re:all hail the glorious communist revolution! by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Yeah but I see far less shit posts coming from Cuba, so they have that going over democracy.

    2. Re:all hail the glorious communist revolution! by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      "Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed? Why should a government] allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns. Why should any man be allowed to buy a printing press and disseminate pernicious opinion calculated to embarrass the government?"

      Spoken like one of your heroes!

  7. You're a genius! by skam240 · · Score: 1

    "Venezuela and Cuba have socialized medicine and also have bad economies so socialized medicine = bad economies.

    What? The entirety of the first world also has socialized medicine except America and they pay less than half per person than America does for its healthcare?

    No, that's wrong because Cuba and Venezuela!"

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  8. Your turn, North Korea! by mi · · Score: 1

    More than 5 million cellphone users in Cuba received free internet on Tuesday

    Now it is North Korea's turn.So much to live for and to hope for — unlike in the decadent lands of the West. The Communism is more and and more attractive every day!

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  9. What kind of free? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Free as in no cost, or free as in you can see/go/access anything you like? I'm pretty sure it's the former, and the latter will never happen with the current regime.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  10. LOL, what, 2 websites? by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    FidelCastro.com & CNN.com?

  11. Government control over information by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    broader Web access will ultimately weaken government control over what information reaches people in a country where the state has a monopoly on the media.

    Anyone willing to get news from the Free World could do it using a cheap radio. It seems that has not impressed Cubans so far