Cubans pay more a weeks worth of salary for internet

[Bacchus4.0]

At $4.50 equivalent an hour. Not $4.50 divided by 25 sheets of Cuban TP.



It won’t be cheap. Providers will ask users to fork over the equivalent of $4.50 per hour for access.

While those prices might compete with the service offered at 30,000 feet by US airlines, for most Cubans the fees make logging on out of reach.

Independent Cuban journalist Iván García Quintero makes this point in a column published by Infobae. Mr. García quotes a woman named Sandra who earns 375 pesos (roughly US$14) a month.

“I don’t see how I could surf the Internet or open an account on Facebook with a salary of 375 pesos. One hour on the Internet would cost me 112 pesos, nearly a third of my salary,” she says. “I guess that some people could. But the majority is not going to stop eating just to connect to the Internet.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2013/0604/Internet-access-to-expand-in-Cuba-at-a-price

Indeed, some scoffed at the new computer centers’ price tag of $4.50 an hour. That is a stiff fee when state salaries average about $20 per month, although there are an array of subsidized goods and services.

“It’s a real bargain,” said a user on the state news Web site Cuba Si who gave the name Osvaldo Ulloa. “I mean, I work for a week and then I can get online for hour — fabulous.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/world/americas/cuban-centers-to-offer-a-costly-glimpse-of-the-web.html

[catnhatnh]

1. Is there any government in this hemisphere south of the US you approve of? N/T

[Bacchus4.0]

2. certainly not Cuba's, duh!!

Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, Peru Costa Rica, Panama, the DR all seem to have a mature democratic systems in place no matter the ideology of the leader in power.

How about you?

[catnhatnh]

5. Duh yourself Imperialist Running Dog...

Seems to me they have food, shelter, healthcare, and jobs. I know quite a few in the US who would trade.

[Bacchus4.0]

7. is that a fact you marxist pig? n/t

x

[catnhatnh]

9. Ab-so-fuckin-lutely N/T

[Bacchus4.0]

10. I see alot Cubans and Venezuelans in the US who apparently didn't think so n/t

s

[clarice]

4. I'm curious as to why you seem offended by the OP. nt

[catnhatnh]

6. Not offended...

just not surprised.

[clarice]

3. LOL communism at it's finest. nt

[MinM]

8. America's Lagging Internet

Cuba may have US beat in crappy internet service.

America's Lagging Internet
Friday, November 02, 2012

The United States once led the world in internet speed and infrastructure. Now, according to one estimate, it ranks at about 29. Brooke talks to David Cay Johnston, journalist and author of The Fine Print: How big companies use plain english to rob you blind, who says that companies continue to raise prices and engage in lobbying efforts to rewrite regulation, while avoiding necessary upgrades to infrastructure that would speed up America's internet...

http://www.onthemedia.org/2012/nov/02/americas-lagging-internet/

http://audio.wnyc.org/otm/otm110212h.mp3

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10954093

[joshcryer]

11. Cuba is small, it should be like South Korea internet-wise.

You can wirelessly provide internet to the entire island for a few million bucks.

Wired would be faster and more stable but that could be done over time.

Note: South Korea is smaller than Cuba but almost has 5 times the population. They have some of the best internet in the world: http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/01/31/south-korea-is-still-number-one-has-fastest-internet-speed-worldwide/