Cuba is finally offering its citizens Internet in their homes after a two-month trial program, Fox News reports. The program ran from Dec. 19 through Feb. 28, and gave free Internet connection to 858 homes in Habana Vieja.
Yet amid the new initiative, the price to go on the World Wide Web is steep, and it’s usage speed is unfortunately slow. The connection is provided by the state, and consists of packages of 30 hours per month, with separate prices for speed.
For instance, 128 kilobytes can cost a family up to 15 CUC (currency equivalent to dollars), and two megabytes can go up to 105 CUC, which accounts for one-fourth of an average monthly salary on the island. And if one uses above the 30 hours, a penalty of 1.50 CUC is charged for every additional hour used.
Prior to this, only foreign journalists, diplomats and other professionals had access to Internet in their homes. Though back in 2015, the government started installing Wi-Fi in parks and certain street corners. Before all of these changes, Cubans were stuck with paying six to eight dollars an hour for extremely slow web service in hotels and Internet cafes.