14 DAY TRIAL // The Cuban government announced it would expand the country's Internet access by opening 35 paid Wi-Fi spots in public spaces.
It will cost $2 / €1.75 per hour to use them, and they'll be operated by ETECSA (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A.), the government's telecommunications provider.
Internet access, amongst many things, has been very limited in Cuba for the past decades, but recently, the nation's decision makers are slowly opening the doors for new technologies like tablets, smartphones, and modern computer software.
The Internet has been banned outright from Cuba, and only educational and pre-approved businesses had the right to use it.
In their attempts to modernize the country, the Cuban government has been slowly rethinking its strategy on the public's right to surf the Web, and in the 2010s opened its first public Internet cafes.
Now, and especially in the last six months, the population has been slowly granted access to the service, even if only limited to a very few cybercafes, all operated and closely monitored by the government controlled ETECSA operator.
Cuba is ready to take the next step towards home Internet connections
According to the New York Times, a leaked government report outlines a plan to connect to the Internet half of the country's population by 2020, a daring plan from a communist country which has a history of holding a tight grip on its citizens.
The Cuban officials are playing a dangerous game if we weigh in all the Internet's features. While highly profitable for a country's economy, the World Wide Web has also been known to topple governments in the past as well.
The Internet has been at the core of many civil liberty movements in the past if we look at the Arab Spring revolutions and the Turkey protests, and is surely to give a headache to Cuba at one point or another.
The good news is the leaked government report also revealed how Cuban officials have already reached the conclusion that the lack of Internet access was holding the economy back, and they're ready to take a risk for the greater good.
Home Internet access is currently prohibited in the country and a system like the Great Chinese Firewall will surely be implemented if going forward.