LATIN AMERICAN HERALD TRIBUNE
May 22, 2015
Cuba Launches Public WiFi Service
HAVANA – Public WiFi is up and running in the central Cuban city of Trinidad and will soon be available in nearby Sancti Spiritus as part of a government strategy to set up wireless hot spots in a country that restricts access to the Internet.
In Trinidad, a town popular with foreign tourists, the public WiFi service is available in a downtown park, an executive with state telecoms monopoly Etecsa said on a national newscast.
Luis Rolando Gonzalez, Etecsa director in Sancti Spiritus province, told media that the company is ready to set up similar hot spots in the like-named regional capital.
The service should be operating in Sancti Spiritus city “before the end of this month,” Gonzalez said.
Etecsa’s WiFi service was rolled out in Trinidad last month, but not before artist Alexis Leyva, a.k.a. Kcho, decided to turn the Internet connection at his Havana studio into a hot spot accessible by the public.
The Cuban government restricts home Internet connections and the fees charged at state-run Internet cafes are steep.
Etecsa announced in February that it plans to double the number of Internet cafes to 300 by the end of 2015 while continuing to offer new WiFi hot spots.
