Internet Without Etecsa in Cuba: Possible but Expensive
These are the prices of Starlink on Cuba’s informal market
HAVANA TIMES – If you visit Starlink’s website—the satellite Internet service owned by Elon Musk—and search for Cuba, you will see that the service is unavailable. Along with Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Belize, the island is one of the few large Latin American nations without coverage. However, the situation on the ground seems to tell a different story. Some Cubans residing in the country have been using Starlink for months.
El Toque found over a dozen Starlink sales listings in Cuban Facebook groups and more than 60 on the Revolico platform. We contacted seven sellers who confirmed that they had clients on the island and that the service operated normally if activated from a third country. The sellers’ phone numbers had prefixes from places like the United States, Mexico, Paraguay, and Cuba. The oldest advertisement we found dated back to September 2024.
The prices of the devices, generally V3 and V4 versions, range between $1,300 and $1,800 USD. The V3 version is more expensive, while the V4 is usually sold in a mini format. As of March 12, 2025, purchasing the cheapest equipment costs nearly 500,000 pesos—according to informal market exchange rates—approximately 100 times the average salary in Cuba. Currently, if you earn an average salary in Cuban pesos, you would need to save for eight years without spending on anything else to afford one of these devices.
Prices abroad are significantly lower. In Spain, for example, we found mini models for 279 EUR and V3 versions priced around 340 EUR. In the United States, prices range from $300 to $600 USD, depending on the model.
All the sellers we contacted offered installation and configuration services. One even included it in the total price. Another admitted that the high costs were due to the risks involved in bringing the equipment into Cuba.
According to regulations, a special permit is required to bring “ground stations and transmitting and receiving satellite communication terminals (including satellite TV receiving stations, parabolic antennas, their accessories, and portable or other types of satellite phones)” into the country. It is unclear how the Starlink devices made it through customs.
In February 2025, we published an article investigating whether Elon Musk’s service could be used within Cuban territory. One of the individuals interviewed in the report confirmed that some satellite Internet equipment installers (not necessarily Starlink) were being pursued by authorities. This person did not pay for an entire system but rather for a connection to their home via a repeater.
We have also received reports from Cienfuegos indicating police persecution of some Starlink users in that province.
How Do the Devices Work?
One of the sellers recommended the V3 model for businesses or large homes. It is logical to assume that private businesses are the primary Starlink users on the island. The seller pointed to the mini version as the most suitable for domestic use.
Shipments are primarily made to Havana. One seller charged extra for deliveries to other provinces: $15 USD for Artemisa, $100 USD for Pinar del Río, $200 USD for Matanzas, and $300 USD for Cienfuegos.
Once the device is configured and installed, the customer must purchase a plan to activate it. This step requires a bank card. One seller recommended the roaming plan, which costs $165 USD per month in the United States. The seller clarified that activating the device from another country could be cheaper, but the most stable service was through the US.
The sellers assured that Starlink is not blocked on the island. However, connectivity availability ultimately depends on Musk’s decisions. The billionaire’s company has promised to shut down users in countries where the service is unauthorized, but it has not always followed through on that commitment.
Internet in Cuba Without Etecsa
The testimonies gathered by El Toque confirm the existence of an alternative Internet service in Cuba, separate from Etecsa, the state-run telecommunications monopoly. Since 2021, Cuban-American politicians have been seeking a solution to help Cubans bypass censorship during protests. In November 2024, María Elvira Salazar claimed she had spoken to Elon Musk about the matter. So far, the billionaire has not commented.
During the protest in Río Cauto, Granma, on March 7, 2025, local residents reported that their Internet service was restricted. Connectivity restrictions are a common strategy used by authorities to hinder communication and suppress protests.
The Starlink service being sold in Cuba is not intended for mobile data use but for home connections. In 2025, the Direct to Cell (DTC) feature, which enables mobile data connectivity, is expected to be available in the United States. This functionality is still under development, but in theory, it could be used in Cuba once ready—if Musk allows it. However, only people with the latest mobile phones would have access to this feature.
Another advantage of Starlink devices is connection speed. One seller claimed that the V4 mini, which is more stable, offers speeds between 100 and 300 MBps (megabytes per second), while the V3 version ranges between 200 and 400 MBps. Another seller reported more typical speeds of 150 to 250 MBps for the V3 and 100 to 200 MBps for the V4.
By comparison: the country with the fastest fixed Internet in the world is Singapore, with 336 MBps.
As of January 2025, when the last speed measurement was conducted, Cuba had the worst broadband connection globally. According to the Ookla platform, fixed Internet speeds on the island did not exceed 3 MBps. A Starlink system could improve Etecsa’s Nauta connection by at least 100 times.
First published in Spanish by El Toque and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
I would like to hear from the Castro sycophants on this one. What is the dictatorship’s justification for the pretense of blocking Starlink services? Did Karl Marx ever say that allowing high-speed internet service to the proletariat was a tool to advance the Communist agenda? Is Netflix considered a threat to Castro-style socialism? The US embargo has nothing to do with the regime’s unwillingness to make 21st century communication technology available to the Cuban people. C’mon guys, help me understand this.
Canada has stopped using that system so unless a person or group using the system is a big fan of trump and his foreign policy on deportation please do not use this system in my opinion