Cuba's ETECSA to provide residential DSL services in 2014

Cuba's ETECSA to provide residential DSL services in 2014
June 25, 2013 | By Sean Buckley

Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (ETECSA), Cuba's state-run service
provider, is getting ready to bridge the country's long-standing
Internet divide with plans to extend ADSL-based Internet services to
residential homes by the end of 2014.

"We're thinking of reaching homes with ADSL technology," Jorge Legra,
ETECSA's director of strategic programs, told Agencia EFE. "We're trying
to drop telephone access, since besides its poor quality; the telephone
network is not designed for this kind of access."

This service expansion follows the government's move last month to offer
Internet access at 118 ETECSA outlets around the island. However, the
$4.50 per hour usage price is far more than what an average resident in
Cuba can pay.

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Before it offered the service at the outlets, Internet access was only
available at select institutions and to tourists at 200 luxury hotels.
Even with these new initiatives, only 2.6 million of Cuba's 11.2 million
citizens can get Internet access, and those that can may only view
state-controlled websites.

Cuba's Internet expansion efforts have emerged after it activated its
ALBA-1 submarine cable link to Venezuela in January. With this new
submarine cable link in place, the country won't have to depend on slow
satellite connections to access the Internet.

Source: "Cuba's ETECSA to provide residential DSL services in 2014 -
FierceTelecom" -
http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/cubas-etecsa-provide-residential-dsl-services-2014/2013-06-25