Cuba's creaking monopoly telco suffering “worst crisis since its creation” - TelecomTV

In Cuba, connected 3 March 1959, the revolutionary authorities of Fidel Castro seized power of the Cuban Telephone Company and instantly nationalised it. Hitherto, it had been a subsidiary of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation. The strategically highly important seizure was the archetypal (but by nary means the last) made by the Castro authorities and, each these years on, it tin safely beryllium said that the telecoms assemblage successful Cuba has ne'er been the aforesaid since. 

Since 1994, telecom services connected the Caribbean’s largest land person been tally by Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA (ETECSA for short), the state-owned and state-controlled monopoly organisation with nary nationalist contention – it is the sole (lawful) supplier of telecoms services connected the island. It is 1 of a tiny fistful of Cuban companies that makes a batch of wealth but, nonetheless, exists successful a authorities of imperishable crisis, continually lurching from 1 predicament to different and past backmost again.

Reliable and up-to-date telecoms statistic are hard to travel by, but Cuba lags massively down North America, the UK, Europe, Asia and Australasia successful presumption of telecoms improvement and the availability of services. This is chiefly due to the fact that of nationalist and planetary authorities and commercialized embargoes. So, arsenic of 2020, it is known that Cuba had a full of 8.16 cardinal communications connections, overall, for a then-population of 11.33 million. Among them were 6.66 cardinal mobile connections.

Mobile telephony came precocious to Cuba, and truthful did the internet, unsurprisingly fixed that adjacent the authorities was successful the wont of calling the satellite wide web “the large illness of the 21st century”, chiefly due to the fact that of the magnitude of “counter-revolutionary information” disposable connected assorted websites. However, immoderate restrictions were lifted successful 2007 and buying a (massively expensive) machine became ineligible – with a authorities permit. Of course, the full tedious process was hedged astir with Kafkaesque bureaucratic regularisation and oversight and, anyway, fewer Cubans could spend to stump up the currency (often required successful hard currency alternatively than Cuban pesos) either to bargain a laptop oregon wage the phenomenally costly costs of ‘broadband’ access.

As acold arsenic mobile entree is concerned, and acknowledgment to constricted 4G technology, successful 2019 mobile net connectivity was enabled via ETECSA’s Cubacel mobile phones. Last March, Cuba’s Mincom (Ministry of Communications) announced that 4G was present disposable successful each municipality successful the country. However, the information that it was ‘available’ successful mentation did not needfully mean that it was disposable successful practice.

When they were introduced, Cuba’s mobile telephone tariffs were infamously expensive. Prices person since fallen but they are inactive precocious and arsenic it’s a competition-free, seller’s market, truthful determination is small inducement for ETECSA to present caller tariffs oregon technologies. 5G is simply a tube dream. As for the internet, Cuba remains mode down the satellite average, with lone 3,244 web hosts.  

Last month’s Cuba telecoms Speedtest from Ookla, the trusted web work that provides escaped investigation of net entree show metrics specified arsenic transportation information complaint and latency, shows that Cuba’s fixed broadband services spot the state mode down astatine 181st successful the planetary hierarchy. The mean broadband download velocity was 1.82Mbit/s, upload velocity was 0.81Mbit/s and latency stood astatine 132 milliseconds (ms). Meanwhile, mobile show was clocked astatine a download velocity of 4.51Mbit/s, upload velocity astatine 3.14Mbit/s and latency astatine 129ms, putting Cuba successful 138th spot successful the planetary list.

Back successful 2015, ETECSA began providing Wi-Fi hotspots, but conscionable 35 of them were made disposable successful parks, hotels and connected immoderate thoroughfare corners countrywide. By 2016, hotspot availability had risen to 90, and past period it had deed the dizzy heights of 1,100 for a state with a colonisation of astir 12 cardinal people.

So, who’s being economical with the actualité? 

Prepping this nonfiction and scouting astir the outer limits of the interwebulator arsenic is my wont, I was intrigued to travel crossed the Havana Times, which is an autarkic Cuban blog and online mag founded mode backmost 2008. Havana Times is edited successful Nicaragua by exiled journalists and astir of the contributing bloggers unrecorded successful Havana, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo (no, not the subject base).

There are besides Cuban contributors successful Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Canada, Ecuador and Mexico. It is fascinating to work the world of the acquisition of Cuban telecoms by the radical who either enactment for the nationalist telco oregon really person to usage ETECSA’s ‘services’. What's more, it's not astatine each astonishing that the world is successful marked opposition to authorities propaganda and the output from the telco's PR machine. 

So, arsenic Havana Time reports, 1 José Ángel, who allegedly works for ETECSA successful Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución ( the gathering with the multi-storey outline of Che Guevara connected it,) says the telco is experiencing  “the worst situation since its creation”. He claimed: “We are tying pieces of cables unneurotic to repair the breaks. The bosses inactive person privileges, but we are without the resources to service customers… There are nary landlines to regenerate the aged ones; we deficiency the boxes to instal wrong homes; the proviso of cables is besides having galore problems, and adjacent our mobility is affected by the shortage of fuel.”

Meanwhile, an worker astatine an ETECSA lawsuit work bureau successful downtown Havana says things person changed a batch successful caller years. “They utilized to merchantability america products astatine a preferential price, but that happens little and less. Here we are a small amended due to the fact that this spot is precise cardinal and works similar a show window, but successful the different municipalities they cannot adjacent crook connected the aerial conditioning,” helium added.

Nonetheless, ETECSA is coining it in. Twice a period the telco launches a “cell-phone recharge promotion with other bonuses” that has to beryllium paid for from overseas (mainly the US) successful hard currency. A recharge is simply a mode to nonstop telephone recognition to a household oregon friend's prepaid mobile phone. The scam (because that is what it truly is, contempt its genuine worth to an mean Cuban) generates millions of dollars a period for the telco but astir nary of the currency goes towards improving Cuba’s telecom infrastructure. 

As different (understandably anonymous) blogger (seemingly a elder accountant) claimed: “About 90% of what ETECSA collects leaves the institution successful a ample point marked ‘undefined,’ (ie. the government). With what remains, it’s precise hard to support a prime work due to the fact that we can’t marque investments.”

The root added that the deficiency of disposable funds is affecting overseas companies. For example: “In 2022, for the archetypal clip successful 15 years, we haven’t been capable to fulfil our fiscal committedness to Nokia. Investors are pressing america similar crazy, but there’s nary money. The constituent has been reached wherever a ample concern has to beryllium made to amended connectivity, due to the fact that the submarine cablegram with Venezuela is not capable now. Although negotiations are successful the works with Mexico for the imaginable laying of different cable, specified a task volition request investments, and the institution is not capable to marque them close now.”

It’s a crying shame

Having spent 3 weeks successful Cuba astatine the tallness (or, much properly, the depths) of the “Special Economic Period”, which began successful 1991 erstwhile Russia withdrew the immense subsidies it had been paying to the Castro authorities and benignant of ended successful the aboriginal 2000s, I tin personally attest to the discrepancies betwixt the enactment enactment and the existent beingness of mean Cubans. The poorness was awful, arsenic was what small nutrient determination was to eat. The full infrastructure of the state was successful ruins but the radical were incredibly upbeat and resilient. Mind you, fantabulous rum was little than a subordinate a bottle.

That reminds maine of my 168 kilometre bid travel from Havana to Pinar del Rio that took 19 hours connected a bid with nary solid successful the windows, nary sides to galore of the the carriages, nary lights, nary h2o and nary lavatories but the gaping holes hacked successful the floors wherever the ‘facilities’ had erstwhile been. The item was a tally crossed a collapsing woody trestle span implicit a water that took 3 run-ups to negotiate. In the mediate of the knockabout fun, the water h2o roseate to ankle level successful the carriages arsenic we slowed to little than walking pace. And that was conscionable the start. Later, we were attacked by bandits successful the mediate of the nighttime and a contingent of constabulary bushed them backmost with firearm butts – each by the airy of 2 lipid lamps. Ah, those were the days…