If you walk through Havana, you’ll usually see groups of people huddled around certain plazas, parks and side streets with their cellphones held up to their faces. These people are online.
In order to post a picture to Facebook, send an email or read the news, Cubans must buy an internet access card for about a dollar from Etecsa, the state-run telecommunications company, and then find a public hot spot — but that all seems set to change.
On Tuesday, the Cuban government tested wireless internet directly on mobile phones nationwide for nine hours. The internet was free for the duration of the test, but Etecsa plans to sell mobile phone plans that include internet service.
Etecsa customers were not alerted about the trial, according to Yoani Sánchez, director of the local news site 14ymedio.com. They found out through word of mouth and social media.
For a short period, Cubans could use the internet from their bedrooms, kitchens, porches or wherever they wished.
“You guys won’t believe me,” Ms. Sánchez tweeted from Havana. “I am sending this tweet from my mobile phone.”
If you walk through Havana, you’ll usually see groups of people huddled around certain plazas, parks and side streets with their cellphones held up to their faces. These people are online.
In order to post a picture to Facebook, send an email or read the news, Cubans must buy an internet access card for about a dollar from Etecsa, the state-run telecommunications company, and then find a public hot spot — but that all seems set to change.
On Tuesday, the Cuban government tested wireless internet directly on mobile phones nationwide for nine hours. The internet was free for the duration of the test, but Etecsa plans to sell mobile phone plans that include internet service.
Etecsa customers were not alerted about the trial, according to Yoani Sánchez, director of the local news site 14ymedio.com. They found out through word of mouth and social media.
For a short period, Cubans could use the internet from their bedrooms, kitchens, porches or wherever they wished.
“You guys won’t believe me,” Ms. Sánchez tweeted from Havana. “I am sending this tweet from my mobile phone.”
source:-nytimes
