how easy and avaible is Internet Acess in Cuba ? Any Cyber Cafe in Havana and Santiago ?

The Internet is banned in Cuba, except for tourists and a few people trusted by the regime. Tourists (although not Cubans) can pay big bucks to access the Web in a few Internet Cafes open in large cities. If you go to one of these places, please do a search to see if you can access the websites for Amnesty International or Cubanet, and please publish on this board the results of this experiment.

There is a nice Internet Cafe at Hotel Nacional, other one is at Capitolio building, this is cheaper than the other one.

poster #1 is telling lies. Internet access is not banned. The Cuban Government has, in fact, established public facilities in all major cities and towns to encourage particularly young people to become proficient in the use of computers - (and Fidel, himself, is an internet addict and enthusiast). Tourists who want to assist this process might like to consider leaving behind a laptop for these places - they would get good use! (and see earlier posting about accessing the internet, using a laptop, from your casa)

Internet access:

Havana:

·The Capitol building in Old Havana. $5 USD/h
·Biomundi center, c. 200 e/ 19 y 21, Atabey, Havana. $5 USD/h
·Colombus Conectividad, Calle 20 e/ 7ma. y 9na. #711, Miramar, Havana. $4 USD/h

from :
http://www.casaparticular.info

Santiago:

Hotel Melia Santiago business center $5 per hour. Great speed.

PL

Dear Original Poster,

Internet and Email access has gone from almost non-existent (several years ago) to fairly easy and accessible for tourists and foreign business people. There's not numerous Internet Cafes like in many parts of the world, but this is slowly changing.

In Havana there's the usual places like the Internet Cafes at the Capitolio (one upstairs and one downstairs) and International Press Centre, as well as the numerous business centres in all of the top tourist/business hotels. (The $12/hour at the National Hotel is expensive, but their "6 days a week/10 hours a day" banking services are right next door, and the computers are in the bar so you can enjoy a cold one while you're taping away! LOL!) There's a little place on Obispo that'll do individual email send/receives for $1. Many of the Post Offices are offering Internet connections now. The telephone company, ETECSA, is building small Internet booths all over the place. There's two new ones in Old Havana, down near the waterfront, and another two in Vedado. (These booths look exactly like the International Telephone Booths.)

If you're bringing your own laptop I'd suggest you buy the Internet Card that's available to foreigners so you can log-on anywhere you have access to a phone line. The cards are $15/5 hours and can be bought from the International Press Center at 23 and O in Vedado. You can use their computers, plug in your own laptop on the premises, or do it privately from the comfort of your casa. (You have the dial-up number, the card has a Log-In and Password, all you need is a telephone jack to plug your telephone modem cable into.) It's easy and works like a charm.

There's sporadic problems with Cuba's woefully inadequate telecommunications infrastructure, but I'd say at least 90% of my emails are received internationally within a few minutes. When I'm working there I'm sending dozens and dozens of emails daily for days on end and I (almost) never have a problem.

Posters like #1 like to give the impression that Internet and email is impossible for any "normal" Cuban. This is, of course, completely ridiculous. (If they'd ever travel to Cuba they'd be able to see for themselves.) Anywhere in the world where there's phone lines and computers there's Internet in some form and no one can stop it. It's still fairly uncommon - but certainly NOT rare - in tourist centers, and it's still almost non-existent out in the countryside (as are telephones) but considering the fact that almost no one had it several years ago and now thousands and thousand of Cubans DO shows that the situation is changing slowly. It'll take a long time - and a big change in politics - before it's as common as most other places, but don't for an instant think that in tourist areas you won't be meeting Cubans who'll be wanting to exchange email addresses with you.

Nothing is easy in Cuba. Tasks that are simple almost everywhere else in the world can have you tearing your hair out there, but don't worry about getting a fairly solid Internet connection anywhere where there are tourists. It's simple.

Cheers,
Terry

Hi!
It's half way right what Terry says: it is quite easy to spot an etecsa-office in most towns (Cienfuegos, Trinida, Havana, Baracoa, Santiago..).
But do be warned: First you have to buy tha internet card for $15, then you have to pay for the time you are using theire machines (if you are); and for 5 houres it amounts to another $15. Then some lines are very slow (Baracoa!), and, the worst: All people we talked to about this card, (5-7?), had had problems with their card. My guess is that we got almost 4 houres. And that was considerd good!
Please, if any others have good stories about etecsa and their internet card, I would like to hear about it? My worst memory of Cuba!

Ann

I went to an international hotel in Camaguey together with my novia last week to check my e-mail and news from my country.
Unfortunately I had left my passport at my casa, and we were told we could use my gf's carne for the paperwork before logging on to internet. Worked like a charm, so anyone claiming cubans are banned from the net by an evil dictator speaks from the smelly part.

oddone

Just returned forn Havana and stayed at the Hotel Comodoro. Very nice place to stay with an internet cafe. It cost $2 for 15 minutes, but is in Spanish only. Would recommend at Hotmail or Yahoo account before going.

The "computer clubs" this idiot refers to give young people instruction in programming, but access to the Internet is FORBIDDEN, except for a few trusties. The regime is developing an "Intranet" of selected "safe" databases, allowing access to, for example, that fascinating publication Granma, but a Cuban surfer better not try to access the New York Times, or he/she would be in big trouble. The other fool who was with his girlfriend was allowed access to the Internet because he is a foreigner. Hey, dude! - try sending your gf back to that place alone and see how far she gets on the Web! (And you better be carrying a lot of fulas as bail money). A few universities and post offices allow Cubans to send e-mail, but all e-mail in Cuba is read by State Security, and anybody bold enough to send an e-mail message that offends El Supremo will soon have somebody knocking on their door, and it won't be a pizza delivery!

I'm glad to see the old canard "There is no internet in Cuba" resurrected once again. And (of course) by someone who obviously has never visited Cuba, has no intention of going, but imagines his contribution essential. (I want to read more about all the murdered canadians, was it 77 in '97 or what? Spam,spam,spam and more spam.) The anticuban trolls on parade in all their frockery (fakery) prove that Thorntree Cuba is Mardi Gras 365 days a year, no hosing down the streets Wed. morning.

Now where is that twat of a Belgian telling us "No politics please, keep politics out of it, no censorship, blah blah blah...." Funny, how the one-eyed Belgians only appear as 'moderators' on particular threads. Not very moderate, IMO.

And when are the CubaLies interns organizing the next spam-a-thon? Can we mark all our calendars?

I would've thought Graceless could give up harrassing the tourists for Lent, but nooooooooooooo.......

Why don't you travel to Cuban just once, then report back...

My Cuban friends in Havana and Santiago all have "unofficial" internet access. Not really sure how this is achieved but it sure is becoming more common. Also, as Terry says they still have problems and their servers are often down for not just hours and more recently for days! Not really a computer person myself.

every Cuban school has been bought new computers from China.
They have Pentium 433MHz chips, 10 gig hard drive and have Windows 98 and Office 97, but I doubt they are liscenced.

So Cubans have rEAdy access to the Internet, right? Just like they have access to uncensored newspapers and television broadcasts?? Ha! Hassan Perez, the hEAd flunky of Castro's "university student organization" called the Internet "the invention of the Devil," and Mr. Big Cheese himself alled the Internet a "capitalist conspiracy." The Internet is considered so dangerous in Cuba that access is kept under lock and key, except for a few flunkies, and the enterpising few who have wrangled black market access to it, and mor power to them!

Wow, you sure know how to clearly state an arguement. I'm sure your rational and clearlt laid out reply convinced a lot of people. Aslo, what's with the constant play on "ea"? Is this a mental condition you're trying to overcome?

Like I said in another posting. Just returned from a great 2 week stay and found an internet cafe in my hotel. (The Comodoro) Cost was $2 for every 15 minutes.

Like the other (sensible) posters said, the Net in Cuba is restricted to a few trusties and foreign, dollar-paying turistas. How many Cubans were using the Internet cafe at the Comodoro Hotel? Do you realize that the $2 you spent for 15 minutes on the Internet is about one week's pay for the average Cuban?