TechFreedom Sees Hope for Improved Cuba Access to Internet

Cuba's lag behind much of the world in internet access and connectivity “may be changing soon” amid state-run Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba's (ETECSA) deployment of Wi-Fi hot spots, said TechFreedom in an email Tuesday. ETECSA deployed 65 hot spots in 2015 and is projected to deploy an additional 80 by the end of 2016. The approximately $2-per-hour access to Wi-Fi via ETECSA is “highly expensive for most Cubans” but “offers a previously unknown level of access,” TechFreedom said. The thawing of U.S.-Cuba relations is opening up new opportunities with U.S. tech firms to upgrade Cuba's digital infrastructure, which in turn will increase demand for Wi-Fi, said Engage Cuba Coalition Chief of Staff Adelina Bryant during a TechFreedom podcast. ETECSA's deployment of Wi-Fi means Cubans have been “given an inch, and they want a mile,” Bryant said. “The policy needs to change. We should be supporting the Cubans’ right to keep demanding more.”