Internet for all?

Internet for all?

MOA, Cuba - August 2 (Felipe D. Ramos Leiva, APLO / www.cubanet.org) -
Recently, Cuban government officials assured the audience of the nightly
TV political program Round Table that in Cuba, the Internet is open to
everyone, so independent journalist Juan Carlos Garcell and myself tried
to verify the statement.

At mid morning Monday, July 31, we went to the ETECSA (phone company)
offices and applied to the clerk for a prepaid card to use the Internet
at the phone company's cybercafe. The woman replied that the cards were
only available in dollars, not in pesos. We agreed to pay in dollars,
but another glitch developed; she told us the service is only available
to foreigners.

The two computers in the cybercafe were being used by African students
who have been in Cuba for years.

We asked the phone company's employee whether she knew that independent
journalist Guillermo Fariñas has been on a hunger strike for months,
demanding that Cubans not be forbidden free access to Internet.

She said that it isn't a matter of access being forbidden; rather what
happens is that the service is limited to foreigners on account of the
limited resources available.

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y06/ago06/04e2.htm