[p_monk]

About a year ago, the young people in Cuba already knew that the cable was laid, but were already very skeptical that it would ever be in operation. It's disheartening to read that they were right, for now. A number of positive changes have taken place in Cuba over the last couple years, but none that might be as consequential as offering low-cost internet. I believe that the government overestimates the "danger" in this -- the people just want to use facebook on their phones.

[buster]

That made me laugh. Seriously. Have you ever been in Cuba? I was there last summer. Most people don't even have a mobile phone, let alone a smartphone. Public phones are extremely common. Most likely many people never even heard of facebook or twitter.

The last family i lived for a week got internet access from a friend who got those coupons. So, from what i was told, basically people that need to have access to the internet at work get a sort of coupons for some hours of internet usage and there of course there's something like a black market for it. Anyway, i don't think peoplein Cuba miss Facebook. They'd probably be more then happy to have mobile phones in general and a good mobile/GPRS coverage for now. In general, internet is so extremely slow over there that it feels like the whole country is on an analog line from Fidels office.

[p_monk]

I have been several times and I have a lot of family there. Notice how I started my comment with "young people." I'm not familiar with the eastern part of the island, but in Havana, mobile phones are quite common amongst young people. Furthermore, you're wrong, the young people in Cuba DO miss facebook. This is because university students are allowed to use the (slow) internet more or less freely. The censorship is not as comprehensive as that of the chinese firewall. And after spending several years with access to gmail and facebook, they're thrown into the regular society, where access to internet more difficult to come by.

[buster]

Yes, there may be a mobile phone here and there. But the difference between the usual european or american standard is so extreme, i'd say that before they can dream about facebook they dream about easier/faster/better internet access and widespread mobile (or even smartphone) usage. And no censorship of facebook ;)

[elteto]

It is not exactly a coupon system, depending on where you work you might have unlimited Internet access (albeit slow) or you might have a set of traffic quotas for Internet and email, sometimes pretty strict (~20mb per month on aggregated email traffic). However, this is not a centralized system or a government mandate, but more of a necessity for some institutions, for example universities normally have a 512kpbs link (or two if they are really big) and the only way to avoid saturating the link is by assigning these traffic quotas to the users.

All residential Internet access in Cuba is illegal (as in is not legally sanctioned by the government) using good old modems, and only a handful of people in very high government positions can have an officially sanctioned house connection. Everyone else is buying it off the black market.

Cellphone coverage is only basic voice and texting without Internet access, and at horribly expensive rates.

[rafaelm]

Remember what Facebook and Twitter means for these authoritarian regimes.It's the possibility for their people to voice their opinions and learn more about what's happening beyond their borders.

This cable was laid between Venezuela and Cuba in 2007. There was an attempt about a couple of years ago to block certain websites here in Venezuela that were deemed dangerous by the government. The reaction from the people over twitter and FB prevented it. I've always been worried that the venezuelan govt will follow the lessons from their cuban and chinese mentors.

[ipince]

Hi Rafael! Assuming you're Venezuelan, you're the only one (beside myself) that I've seen in hacker news. I'd be interested in chatting about what you're doing and your view of Venezuela's situation. Please email me (find email in profile). Cheers!