Cuba’s state owned telco ECTSA reportedly plans to launch a pilot broadband internet service in two Havana neighbourhoods – a move which would afford many citizens access for the first time.
Cuba’s state owned telco ECTSA reportedly plans to launch a pilot broadband internet service in two Havana neighbourhoods – a move which would afford many citizens access for the first time.
ECTSA said Cubans in Old Havana would be allowed to access broadband via fibre-optic connections supplied by Chinese vendor Huawei, the Washington Times reported.
Odalys Rodríguez del Toro, the telco’s director for Havana, was cited by state media saying cafes, bars and restaurants would also be allowed to start ordering broadband services.
However, he did not give a timeframe for the project and said prices will be announced in future.
For many years, only diplomats and foreign companies were able to access broadband in the country, the latter group having to fork out hundreds of dollars a month to do so. Public Wi-Fi has been available since 2015 but, at US$2 an hour, is too expensive for many.
The move follows an historic warming of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuban governments, which announced in December 2014 that they would gradually restore ties across a number of fields, including telecoms.
Last month, the FCC removed Cuba from its ‘exclusion list’, facilitating local telcos’ entry into the market.
The FCC said in a statement at the time that eliminating the Caribbean country from the Exclusion List for International Section 214 Authorizations “opens the door for US telecom carriers to provide facilities-based telephone and internet services to Cuba without separate approval from the commission”.