Cuba gets free Wi-Fi courtesy of famous artist – and as nation loosens control

Cuba gets free Wi-Fi courtesy of famous artist – and as nation loosens
control
Despite service being very slow, Cubans flock to cultural centre in
Havana and welcome a rare source of open-access internet service
Saturday 14 March 2015 16.13 GMT Last modified on Saturday 14 March 2015
17.45 GMT

Young Cubans are flocking to use the first known free, open-access
internet service in the communist island nation – which has been made
possible by one of Cuba's most famous artists.

A modest cultural centre in Havana has suddenly become a rare source of
free Wi-Fi. The internationally renowned Cuban artist Kcho is providing
the service. Perhaps more surprisingly, his spokesman said the move had
been approved by the state-owned telecommunications utility, Etecsa.

The service is reportedly very slow, especially when the centre gets
crowded. But in a country where only an estimated 5% of the population
has unrestricted access to the internet, a facility that is both free of
charge and free of restrictions is being hailed as an unprecedented boon.

The chance to click on international news websites, communicate with
friends and family overseas and use sites like Facebook and Twitter has
created a massive buzz.

"I come as often as I can," said Adonis Ortiz, 20, while video-chatting
with his father, who lives in the US and whom he has not seen in nine years.

The gradual loosening of the long diplomatic and trade freeze between
the US and Cuba is expected to bring American tech giants such as Google
and Apple into the Cuban market as soon as they are permitted.

In the meantime, although Cuba has installed a high-speed fibre-optic
cable under the sea from Venezuela, and internet users have some access
to Chinese equipment, the Castro regime has mainly kept the web for the
very few.

Another estimate, that a quarter of Cubans have access to the internet –
still one of the lowest penetration rates in the Western Hemisphere – in
fact measures residents who use a restricted domestic intranet featuring
only certain websites, limited email and the work of pro-government
bloggers.


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Kcho has offered the public admission to his own personal internet
connection. But instead of this being the counter-revolutionary, or
post-revolutionary, move of a free market rebel, Kcho may have been
selected as the acceptable face of a regime acquiescing to the
inevitable lure of the internet.

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Kcho, who has close ties to the Cuban government, announced that his
actions had been approved by the ministry of culture.

The artist said he wanted to encourage Cubans to familiarise themselves
with the internet.

"It's only possible through the will to do it and absorb the costs,"
Kcho told the Associated Press. "It is expensive, but the benefit is
tremendous. I have something that is great and powerful. I can share it,
and I am doing so."

Kcho's real name is Alexis Leiva Machado. He gained international fame
for his painting, sculpture and drawings after winning the grand prize
at a prominent art biennial in South Korea. He is currently preparing
for the Havana biennial in May. Born on one of Cuba's outlying islands,
he is known for contemporary art with rustic, seaside and patriotic
themes and imagery.

In the centre's courtyard, tech-savvy millennials lounge throughout the
day in wicker chairs beneath a white canopy, or just outside when it's
packed, tapping away on laptops and tablets or glued to their smartphones.

Cuba has some of the lowest connectivity rates on the planet, with
dial-up accounts closely restricted and at-home broadband almost unheard
of except in the case of foreigners who pay hundreds of dollars a month
for the service in a country where the average salary is between $17 and
$20 a month.

Kcho is estimated to be paying $900 a month to provide the free Wi-Fi.
The password is an old revolutionary slogan: "Here, nobody surrenders."

In the last two years, Cuban authorities have opened hundreds of
internet salons, where an hour online costs $4.50, at speeds far lower
than those at Kcho's studio of around 2mbps. A 2014 report by Akamai
Technologies found average internet connectivity speeds to be around
10.5mbps in the US and 23.6mbps in world-leading South Korea. Globally,
the average was about 3.9mbps.

With dozens of users at any given time, the signal strength of Kcho's
Wi-Fi gets diluted. One user said he sometimes swings by in the middle
of the night, when nobody else is around, and finds it to be
unbelievably fast.

Source: Cuba gets free Wi-Fi courtesy of famous artist – and as nation
loosens control | World news | The Guardian -
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/14/cuba-free-public-wi-fi-artist-kcho-havana