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Cuba Is Left Almost Without Internet Again

Wi-Fi hotspots are disappearing, mobile coverage is failing, and customers are chasing a signal that is becoming increasingly scarce.

By Yoani Sanchez (14ymedio)

HAVANA TIMES – The park at Galiano and San Rafael Streets is packed this Monday with people staring at the screens of their cell phones.

“I got lucky,” I say with relief after passing through several Wi-Fi zones where neither a signal nor even an antenna remains. But the joy is short-lived on this island of the disconnected, and a young woman explains that there is no longer any wireless internet service installed on that central corner.

“We’re here chasing the 4G phone signal because there’s almost no coverage in Centro Habana,” she said.

Without saying a word, without prior announcements or public explanations, the state telecommunications monopoly, Etecsa, has gradually dismantled the parks that, for many Cubans, were the first places where they encountered the World Wide Web.

“People come early because it seems there’s a tower nearby that’s still working,” the woman adds, cutting the conversation short so as not to waste a single second of connectivity.

The Internet has once again become a scarce and hard-to-obtain commodity, so every moment when messages begin downloading, web pages start opening, and the sound of notifications returns to our phones must be used to the fullest.

The scene reminds me of 20 years ago, when the only internet cafés in Havana accepted only foreign customers. In one of them, located in the Capitol building, pretending to be a tourist, I published the first post on my blog Generation Y. But now, even a foreign passport is no help. Once travelers........

© Havana Times