Yahoo – AFP,
3 July 2015
 |
Cubans use
their mobile devices to connect to the Internet via wifi in
a street of Havana,
on July 2, 2015 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)
|
Havana
(AFP) - Near the popular Hotel Habana Libre in Cuba's capital, a gaggle of
young people on cellphones, tablets and laptops log onto the new wifi hotspot
-- a small milestone in one of the least connected countries.
Sitting on
the sidewalks, low-rise walls, or makeshift seats, several dozen people sign in
at the public access wifi zone, part of the government's plan to roll out
Internet access across the Communist island nation.
President
Raul Castro's government has said it wants all Cubans to have Internet access
by 2020.
And last
month, it announced plan to open 35 public wifi sites in 16 cities, pledging to
halve the price to go online.
In order to
access the network, users are asked to open an account with the state-owned
Etecsa company for $1.50 and pay an hourly connection fee.
Since 2013,
Cuba has had about 150 public Internet cafes where users can go online for the
hourly rate.
But the
price is steep in a country where the average salary is $20 a month.
Only 3.4
percent of Cuban households had access to the network in 2013, one of the
lowest figures in the world, according to the International Telecommunication
Union.
US
President Barack Obama has named increased Internet access for the island as
one of the goals of the historic thaw between Washington and Havana announced
last December.
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