Neivy responds reluctantly. It is probably the umpteenth call that she receives this Friday from the customer service of the Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa). Faced with a client’s complaint about the lousy internet connection, the employee limits herself to repeating: “We have instability in the service.” Seconds later she hangs up the phone even though the conversation isn’t over.
The state monopoly Etecsa continues to make enemies. One of the most unpopular official companies in Cuba, only comparable in rejection to the Unión Eléctrica, charges for a service that it barely offers. Access to the web through mobile telephony has become an ordeal for customers, captives in a market that does not allow competition with other companies.
“Thank you for everything, Etecsa”, ironized this morning on Twitter the user Adalberto Orta Pozo. Along with his words was an image of a popular connection speed measurement service. With just 340 kilobits per second (Kbps), the possibilities of this Cuban to comfortably navigate the great world web, upload photos and videos or interact with others on social networks are almost nil.
His publication attracted dozens of ETECSA clients. Some took the opportunity to carry out the speed test and the numbers in various parts of the Island were even worse. In the writing of 14ymedioat the stroke of noon, it was barely possible to connect at 160 Kbps. At that rate, Facebook pages do not load, it is impossible to watch videos on-line and readers get upset because replies to their messages arrive late or never arrive.
At 3:22 p.m., the connection was only a perceptible pulse of 51 Kbps at the headquarters of this newspaper. If this data is taken as an indicator of life, it would be necessary to conclude that the Internet is dying or almost dead in Cuba.
There is “instability in the service” of access to #Internetis what the employee responds @ETECSA_Cuba in this call that I made to the customer service of the state telecommunications monopoly. To top it off, he hung up on me before finishing the conversation… #Cuba pic.twitter.com/BBkg7mghSy
— Yoani Sánchez ?? (@yoanisanchez) July 21, 2023
All these troubles occur, moreover, seven months later of the connection of the submarine fiber optic cable, Arimao, between the port of Cienfuegos and the French island of Martinique. By April of this year they had already started take the first tests of its operation, but since then no senior official has publicly offered the activation schedule for the new connection.
The cable, a project between the Cuban company and the French company Orange, extends over 2,500 kilometers and, according to the executive president of ETECSA, Tania Velázquez, would allow the expansion and diversification of the capabilities of the Internet connection and broadband services. When Cubans complained about poor connectivity a few months ago, some official voices always warned that “here comes the cable” to appease criticism.
However, the fiber reached our shores, the tests of its operation began and the access to the web continued to deteriorate to the point that every day the connection seems to get worse. The discomfort of customers is immense, but the telecommunications monopoly only responds with evasions to its more than 7 million cell phone users.
Despite the poor service, ETECSA continues to launch monthly top-up offers with bonuses that include packages of several gigabytes to surf the web. “I lose most because the bandwidth is so low that even seeing a gif animated makes it difficult for me,” laments Yosiel, a young resident of Jovellanos, Matanzas.
From Miami, Yosiel’s family buys the top-up “every time they get one with a bonus,” he explains. Her sister contracted the Netflix service for her so that she does not have to watch the intractable official television programming, but “the image freezes.” The young man has dark circles under his eyes: “I stay up until after two in the morning to see if the connection improves.”
It is hard to believe that connectivity on the Island is at this point. The damage to the economy is enormous. “I have a food delivery business, customers can contact me by WhatsApp or Messenger but many messages arrive late and I lose money because of that,” laments Zuri del Prado, entrepreneur and manager of a cafeteria-restaurant in Havana.
“If I could hire another company, I would do it because what is happening directly affects my pocket and my credibility,” he adds. “A few days ago we made a dinner for six people to deliver to a family, when we arrived they told me that it was a mistake because they had sent the message the day before and it had arrived 24 hours later. We lost the investment.”
A report published five years ago by The Havana Consulting Group calculated that in the period between 2018 and 2024 ETECSA’s total billing for cell phones would be approximately 4,431 million dollars.
In this equation, however, it seems that the only one that does not lose is Etecsa.
A report published five years ago by The Havana Consulting Group, calculated that in the period between 2018 and 2024, ETECSA’s total billing for cellular telephony would be approximately 4,431 million dollars. It is very likely that this figure will be even higher due to the opening to web browsing from cell phones in December 2018.
How is it possible that a monopoly that obtains profits of such volume has not made the necessary investments to offer a quality service to its clients? How long is ETECSA going to continue behaving as an entity that does Cubans a favor by connecting them with the world and not as a public servant that owes information, transparency and efficiency to its users?
These are questions that remain unanswered. Those who expected details about the Arimao cable to be given in the sessions of the National Assembly this week and the ETECSA executives to apologize for the discomfort they cause their customers, kept their eyes on the television screen without ever hearing a forecast or mea culpa some. Apparently these are not issues that matter to the deputies even though they make millions of people angry every day on this island.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for accompanying us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our newspaper. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
