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Cuba Offers 3G Mobile Internet Access To Citizens (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the late-start dept.

Cuba's population is to be offered internet access via a 3G mobile network from later this week. From a report: Telecom provider Etecsa said citizens would be able to start subscribing to the service from Thursday. Until now, locals have mostly relied on wi-fi hotspots and internet cafes and the 3G service has been restricted to state-employed journalists and foreign businesses among others. This will change -- but many will still be unable to afford the new contracts. Etecsa's packages range from a month's use of 600MB of data for 7CUC ($7) to 4GB for 30CUC. Users get a bonus 300MB use of local .cu domain websites. But the average state wage for the island's 11.2 million residents is the equivalent of about $30 per month.

8 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Just enough for indoctrination by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    That's really not enough data to do anything of consequence, except deliver a small amount of propaganda to users' handsets. Congratulations on keeping it dictatorial, Cuba.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re: Just enough for indoctrination by lucasnate1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Quite the opposite. The only thing that a broad band gives is YouTube videos and pics. Under a slower connection, one must resort to what scares american children the most: text, which has a long history of encouraging independent critical thought.

      --
      Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
    2. Re:Just enough for indoctrination by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      And here I would have thought that communist dictatorships would somehow be less dictatorial ...

      Cuba has never been communist any more than China or Russia. They have always been ruled by a moneyed power elite. That's not Communism, it's capitalism dressed up as Communism. It is essentially jumping straight to late-stage capitalism without enjoying any of the benefits of the early or middle stages.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Just enough for indoctrination by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

      And here I would have thought that communist dictatorships would somehow be less dictatorial ...

      Cuba has never been communist any more than China or Russia.

      Sorry, but at some point you just have to own it.

      Cuba, China, and Soviet Russia are/were communist. They are exactly what you get when true believers in communism implement communism. You've had over a century to come up with some sort of counterexample.

      Your assertion is actually worse than No True Scotsman ... we're going to have to invent a new one for this ... it's more like No True Scotland or something.

  2. Re:Awesome! by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

    My donkey and my 56 Chevy can only use 2G though :(

    But viva la revolucion!

  3. But hey, I hear the healthcare is good by MikeRT · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not long ago, I read an article about how Cuban police will sometimes stop buses to search for contraband food. Is it endangered species they're after? Nope, extra cans of stuff we can legally get off the shelf for about $1 in our Oppressive, Reactionary, Sexist Hellhole.

    And you thought checkpoints to make sure people aren't driving drunk or stoned were tyranny. Imagine the police sifting through your groceries to make sure you're not smuggling cans of beans, rice and meat.

    This is why I have never understood why seemingly intelligent people point to Cuba and are astounded that they have "good healthcare." That's the natural outcome of what happens when you impoverish your people to that level and then give everyone with an above average IQ only a few state-approved employment choices in STEM. You are going to get a lot of doctors because in any "free society" many of those people would be engineers, scientists and others working in private industry that doesn't exist in Communist Cuba.

    Cuban doctors sent to Brazil by their government have said they'd literally rather be trash collectors in Brazil where they're free to make their own choices in a non-totalitarian state than be medical professionals back home.

    1. Re:But hey, I hear the healthcare is good by cb88 · · Score: 2

      Spot on, and I'll reemphasize "good healthcare", its a complete scam, the socialists in brazil were trying to get cuban "doctors" into brazil to "supplement" brazil's doctors but after the recent election nearly all the vacancies were filled once they realized that the new president was not going to have any of that.... filled with highly qualified doctors that had be turned away previously I might add. The lack of enough doctors was a complete farce.

      If there is anything I've ever been impressed about Brazil it's that they have plenty of doctors due to educational subsidy, this of course means there are some less than good ones, but the good ones are *really really* good and genuinely care about and put effort into caring for their patients. The larger number of doctors means more competition and less incentive for hospitals to hire or keep on bad doctors.

  4. Re: by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Cuba has two parallel currencies. The normal peso can't be legally exchanged for foreign currency, and is worth about 4 cents on the black market. The CUC can be converted, and is pegged one-to-one with the US dollar.

    Many corrupt dictatorships have parallel currencies. The elite are paid in the convertible currency, which they can then sell on the black market for a huge profit (2500% in Cuba).

    The fact that the 3G service described in TFA can only be bought with CUC means that normal people, paid in unconvertible pesos, can't use it unless they buy CUC on the black market at an exorbitant markup.

    Marxist Utopia works better in theory than in practice.