Yahoo – AFP,
Alexandre GROSBOIS, May 9, 2017
 |
| The small Cuban town of Gaspar is one of the most connected spots in one of the least wired countries on Earth (AFP Photo/ADALBERTO ROQUE) |
Gaspar
(Cuba) (AFP) - On a traffic island in a country town, young Cubans are doing
what most of their compatriots cannot: surfing an online social network.
In one of
the least wired countries on Earth, Gaspar, population 7,500, is one of the
most connected towns of all.
Illegally,
but with the grudging tolerance of the authorities, four local techies have
launched "Gaspar Social" -- rural Cuba's answer to Facebook.
"I
think it's wonderful what these lads here in Gaspar have done. It was a healthy
change for a town that had rather lost its spark," says Arletty Guerra,
22, one of the locals thumbing her smartphone.
More than
that, Gaspar Social's promoters hope it will lead the rest of the communist
island to greater connectivity.
Social
networking
Most Cubans
must pay a $1.50 an hour to connect via state telecom firm Etecsa's wifi
points. Users of Gaspar Social do not.
Though they
cannot access the world wide web via Gaspar Social, they can share photos and
videos with other users in the town.
It opened to the general public in October -- two months before Etecsa installed the town's first official wifi hotspot.
 |
The four
creators of the Gaspar Social network in Cuba hope that it will lead
the rest
of the communist island to greater connectivity (AFP Photo/
ADALBERTO ROQUE)
|
It opened to the general public in October -- two months before Etecsa installed the town's first official wifi hotspot.
"In
the beginning it was a network just for playing video games," says one of
its creators, municipal computer technician Osmani Montero, 23.
"Then
we opened it to all the people in Gaspar and the number of users grew hugely in
just a month."
Extra
capacity
Yoandi
Alvarez, 30, a medical student, raised money to buy the first aerial and server
for the network.
"The
antenna was near my house," he recalls. "There were users at two or
three o'clock in the morning sitting in the doorway to get online, covered in
quilts and blankets."
Some 500 of
the town's 7,500 inhabitants have started using Gaspar Social.
The team
had to buy four extra relay antennas to handle the large number of users.
To the chat
and file-sharing functions it has added a news page -- with state-authorized
stories only.
 |
Cuba's
Gaspar Social started as a network for playing video games and has
developed
into a local version of Facebook (AFP Photo/ADALBERTO ROQUE)
|
Not-so-wide web
Cuba's
government has been gradually opening up the economy over the past decade. It
has said it aims to provide internet access to all Cubans by 2020.
But the
online revolution has been slow in coming.
In a
country of 11 million people, there are just 317 public wifi hotspots.
Only
selected groups such as scientists, journalists and doctors are allowed to have
internet access in their homes.
Small-scale
local projects like Gaspar's "offer an alternative given Cuba's
infrastructure problems," which prevent many homes from getting online,
says Yudivian Almeida, a computing specialist at Havana University.
If just one
home has an internet cable, using wireless technology "a whole network can
be generated" for neighboring homes to get online, he says.
Got a
permit?
Gaspar Social
is one of about 30 local networks launched by young amateurs in Cuba in recent
years.
 |
In a small
Cuban town some 500 people from a population of 7,500 use
"Gaspar
Social," an illegal but tolerated answer to Facebook (AFP Photo/
ADALBERTO
ROQUE)
|
They are
unlicensed but the communist authorities tolerate them as long as they do not
venture into politics or pornography.
Gaspar
Social's founders were called in last month after the network's success came to
the attention of the ruling Communist Party.
They
thought they were going to get shut down -- but the officials gave them
instructions on applying for a permit, raising hopes that the state may
authorize projects like theirs.
"They
made it clear our network was illegal," Alvarez says. "But they said
they wouldn't be taking our antennas down."
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