The "Cuban Model" of INTERNET

The "Cuban Model" of INTERNET / Walfredo Lopez
Posted on June 4, 2013

When the new law of "expansion" of INTERNET service goes into effect
tomorrow, 11 million Cubans will be able to go to cybercafes and pay
$4.50 USD (115 Cuban pesos) per hour to surf cyberspace. I'm sure that
with the average salary of 400 Cuban pesos a month, very few will do so,
which will make the current digital breach between Cubans and the rest
of the world wider and deeper.

But what those who can pass the first hurdle of price and seat
themselves in front of one of the 334 computers available (nationwide)
in the new State business probably don't know is that they will be
paying to enter one of the most sophisticated, invisible and exotic
government machines for the control of the INTERNET that has ever
existed. This is what I like to call the "Cuban Model" of INTERNET.

It's quite possible that the new clients of "Nauta" (as the government
telecommunications company ETECSA calls its cybercafes), will be nervous
because while they type in their user names and passwords in social
networks, review their email and visit online news sites outside of
Cuba, a "cybercafe caretaker" or a camera will be very nearby, but that
is pure distraction.

The reality is that from the moment they open the door of the cybercafe
they will be inside the "Cuban Model" of INTERNET. Many are unaware that
not only does the Cuban government own and have total control over all
the Cuban cybercafes and computers where ETECSA's new customers will
type in their private information. The government also owns and controls
the famous ALBA 1 fiber optic cable which connects the island to the
world wide web, and all the satellite antennas that since 1996 have had
the same function, and is the only provider of INTERNET (ISP) services,
NAP, DNS, nodes, firewalls, proxies, routers, modems, switches, access
points, hotspots, antennas, radio frequencies, NIC, IP, domains, .cu,
hosting, telephone posts and wires, TIC services companies and computer
stores.

But just when many think it's too much, there begins the black list of
dark forces that work in parallel doing their dirty work: web
administrators, computer engineers, political police, cyber police,
business security services, agencies of control and supervision,
national security laws, gag laws, information security laws, price
control laws, armies of trolls, pro-government bloggers, online news
sites, television channels, radio stations, newspapers, etc.

While around world many governments and businesses promote free WiFi.
While 4G becomes a standard. While every day 3 billion people connect to
the INTERNET and a billion of them do it through their mobile phones.
While the courts uphold data protection laws. While cyber-activists
fight to maintain free, open and neutral INTERNET. While internauts
battle laws like SOPA, PIPA, SINDE and HADOPI. Still today, more than 15
years after the arrival of the INTERNET to Cuba, 99% of the 11 million
Cubans who live on the island are trying to get on the world wide web
for the first time. It must be because Cuba, Cubans and the "Cuban
model" of INTERNET don't resemble anyone's.

Wilfredo Lopez R., Havana, Cuba

3 June 2013

http://translatingcuba.com/the-cuban-model-of-internet-walfredo-lopez/