Cuba’s Internet and telecom connectivity is well below the average for the Caribbean and Latin America in 2009, according to a government report released this week. Despite the legalization of mobile phones in 2008.
Below are some of the numbers indicating to the state of internet and telecom progress in Fidel Castro’s Cuba:
1) There were just 1.8 million phone subscribers in the country. This makes for 15.5 phones for every 100 inhabitants. This is the lowest in the region, according to the United Nations International Telecommunications Union.
2) Out of the 1.8 million, some 800,000 are mobiles.
3) The number of computers in the country is 700,000 or 62 per 1,000 residents. Compared with more than 160 per thousand residents in the region. Many of these are in government offices, health and education facilities.
4) There is no broadband in Cuba. Although a small number of users slow internet connections.
5) The number of internet users in the country provided by the National Statistics Office Cuba, is 1.6 million Internet users, or 14.2 per 100 residents. Which Reuters believes pertains to Government intranet. In contrast, In Jamaica, another Caribbean country Internet access was 53.27 per 100 inhabitants in 2008. In the Dominican Republic it ‘s 25.87 percent and in Haiti 10.42 percent, the ITU reported.
6) Access to satellite television was also severely restricted. In Cuba, satellite TV access is illegal without special permission from the government and authorities regularly raid neighborhoods and homes in search of receptors.
Cuba blames the 48 year old United States Embargo for its communications backwardness.
Cuba's failure to embrace modern telecoms is a major complaint among citizens under 50 years old, who cite it as one of the reasons they seek to migrate abroad.
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State of Internet and telecom progress in Castro’s Cuba
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