Cuba USA
Diario de Cuba reported that Etecsa will begin selling home Internet connectivity in September. Prime time prices will be:
The night time price (8PM - 7AM) will be 20 CUC for 90 hours, with a charge of 20 convertible centavos per hour after the limit is exceeded.
Access to the Cuban intranet will cost less, but they did not give prices.
They reported that ADSL service will be available in some areas, but said nothing about where. My guess is that most users will be restricted to dial up connections. It also remains to be seen which, if any, Web sites will be blocked.
At these prices, there will be a lot of overhead slack for home owners to sign up for a plan then resell access to others.
Here is the interesting tidbit:
The post shifts topics near the end, with a brief undersea cable discussion, saying that an unnamed ETECSA official said that the US Government had approved an $18 million proposal for an undersea cable connection between Florida and Cuba in 2010. Cuba opted instead for the $70 million ALBA-1 cable.
Has the US approval been documented? If Cuba did in fact turn it down in favor of ALBA-1 (or both), one cannot help suspecting corruption.
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Update 3/9/2014
Etecsa has announced yet another expensive service, mobile intranet email for 1 CUC per megabyte sent or received.
- Verizon Roaming In Cuba -- Much Ado About Not Much
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- Cuban Mobile Internet Prices
Cuban authorities have announced that mobile Internet services will be available on the island soon at a maximum rate of 1 Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) per megabyte of data transferred. (1 CUC = 1.14 USD). As far as I know, they have said nothing about...
- Etecsa Officials Provide Some Details And Make Some Promises
Etecsa officials held a press conference in which they made the point that the 118 new Internet access rooms are just the start of improved Internet service. They promised lower prices, more access rooms, WiFi in access rooms, mobile connectivity, etc.,...
- Alba-1 Cable To Begin Service In September Or October
A blog post by Isbel Díaz Torres quotes Boris Moreno Cordoves, Vice Minister of Communications & Informatics, as saying that service improvement due to the ALBA-1 cable could begin in September or October of this year. Díaz asks, what will begin to...
Cuba USA
Cuban home connectivity prices leaked (with a tidbit at the end of the post)
Diario de Cuba reported that Etecsa will begin selling home Internet connectivity in September. Prime time prices will be:
The night time price (8PM - 7AM) will be 20 CUC for 90 hours, with a charge of 20 convertible centavos per hour after the limit is exceeded.
Access to the Cuban intranet will cost less, but they did not give prices.
They reported that ADSL service will be available in some areas, but said nothing about where. My guess is that most users will be restricted to dial up connections. It also remains to be seen which, if any, Web sites will be blocked.
At these prices, there will be a lot of overhead slack for home owners to sign up for a plan then resell access to others.
Here is the interesting tidbit:
The post shifts topics near the end, with a brief undersea cable discussion, saying that an unnamed ETECSA official said that the US Government had approved an $18 million proposal for an undersea cable connection between Florida and Cuba in 2010. Cuba opted instead for the $70 million ALBA-1 cable.
Has the US approval been documented? If Cuba did in fact turn it down in favor of ALBA-1 (or both), one cannot help suspecting corruption.
-----
Update 3/9/2014
Etecsa has announced yet another expensive service, mobile intranet email for 1 CUC per megabyte sent or received.
- Verizon Roaming In Cuba -- Much Ado About Not Much
While Verizon customers may be able to make $2.99 per minute 2G calls, it seems their $2.05 per megabyte data service will be limited to few locations. President Obama is continuing to use executive powers to nibble away at the embargo. Some US companies...
- Cuba's Wifi Access Plan Raises Intresting Questions.
Do we see the outline of a future national fiber backbone? Luis Manuel Díaz Naranjo, ETECSA Director of Communications, has announced that during the coming weeks, they plan to roll out 35 WiFi access points. As shown here, they will be distributed throughout...
- Cuban Mobile Internet Prices
Cuban authorities have announced that mobile Internet services will be available on the island soon at a maximum rate of 1 Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) per megabyte of data transferred. (1 CUC = 1.14 USD). As far as I know, they have said nothing about...
- Etecsa Officials Provide Some Details And Make Some Promises
Etecsa officials held a press conference in which they made the point that the 118 new Internet access rooms are just the start of improved Internet service. They promised lower prices, more access rooms, WiFi in access rooms, mobile connectivity, etc.,...
- Alba-1 Cable To Begin Service In September Or October
A blog post by Isbel Díaz Torres quotes Boris Moreno Cordoves, Vice Minister of Communications & Informatics, as saying that service improvement due to the ALBA-1 cable could begin in September or October of this year. Díaz asks, what will begin to...