Public Internet Facilities Highly Visited During First Month

ETECSA is the Cuban government’s monopoly telecommunications company.

HAVANA TIMES – After a month in operation, around 11,000 people have flocked to the new government facilities with Internet connectivity, reported Juventud Rebelde.

According to Jorge Legros, director of the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (ETECSA), 118 cyber facilities opened in early June, and that the company has added another 200 points in previously existing hotels and resorts in the country.

With the price for Internet surfing (5 USD for one hour) still inaccessible to the average Cuban that earns around 20 USD a month, the one tenth of one percent of the Cuban population that was able to pay for the new service is mostly comprised of those who receive family remittances from abroad.

The phone company hopes to open ten new points in several provinces, before the end of the 2013, while working on the installation of Wi-Fi networks to achieve a gradual transfer of switched networks to ADSL technology, said the official.

The ETECSA directors describe as “remarkable” the pace of growth of communications services in Cuba over the past five years.