How I spent 24 hours on Cuban Wi-Fi | McClatchy Washington Bureau

It was almost 6:30 p.m. and about a dozen college-aged Cubans huddled on the library steps a couple of blocks from Havana’s famed Malecon seafront promenade.

Squeezed together as if they needed to be for warmth, even though it was about 70 degrees, they barely talked to one another, but plenty to their devices. Several were video-chatting with relatives in Miami or other cities abroad.

“What do you think of the Wi-Fi?” asked Daniel Dopico, 23, a telecommunications student. “It’s pretty slow, isn’t it?”

Dopico helped me log on at one of the new Cuban Wi-Fi hot spots that have swept this island of 11 million people. I had typed in the lengthy Internet access code into my unlocked phone several times, but it wouldn’t connect. Dopico got me on within a minute.

Young Cubans such as Dopico who are lucky enough to have parents with higher-paying foreign jobs or relatives sending them money from overseas can now join Facebook and Instagram provided they can afford the exorbitant fees. Their parents can read El Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald and other U.S. news websites that once were off-limits.

The expansion of the Wi-Fi is one of the bullet points the Obama administration likes to tout when defending the potential benefits of new relations with Cuba – especially when pressed about the lack of progress on human rights.

The Cuban government has opened dozens of Wi-Fi hot spots around the country. The U.S. Treasury Department also has loosened regulations to allow U.S. telecommunications companies to invest in Cuba. During last week’s trip to Cuba, President Barack Obama announced that Google will soon set up even more Wi-Fi access across the island.

While Obama was touring Habana Vieja and attending a baseball game with Cuban leader Raúl Castro, we visiting reporters had special free high-speed Internet access that was almost as good as any broadband in the United States. Only a few sites, such as the Web communications portal Skype, were off-limits.

But I was curious about Cuba’s public Wi-Fi away from the press center, which sent me around the corner to Avenida Paseo, known as La Rampa, or the Ramp. There, dozens of Cubans lined the street for several blocks, one of the most-used Wi-Fi hot spots in the Cuban capital until the signal fades out near the famous Malecon seawall.

An hour’s worth of Internet service costs about $2, not much by U.S. measure. But with Cuba’s average state salary of about $20 a month, it is incredibly expensive by Cuban standards. For comparison, if similar rates applied in Miami, where the median household income is $54,000, that would be about $450 an hour.

Could it possibly be worth it?

Sitting on the steps, Antonio Muñoz, 27, a communications major, answered yes, but he said he could log on only once a week.

“It’s just so expensive,” he said.

He still comes to the corner because it’s where his friends hang out.

I bought three hourlong access cards at $2 each at a kiosk set up by the state phone company, ETECSA. They disappeared, it seemed like, in mere minutes. So I bought a fourth and later a fifth for $3 on Cuba’s black market – more expensive, but I didn’t have to wait in the long lines that are typical of ETECSA kiosks.

I was able to check on updates from the White House and to email colleagues on the island and back in Washington and Miami. But it seemed like I was always typing in another lengthy 12-digit log-in and password codes after running out of time. There was always one more fact I wanted to check or “important” message I needed to send.

I was booted off the Web several times. I was uncertain why, but Dopico and Muñoz said it happened more often during heavy traffic at popular hours, such as after work.

The street Wi-Fi on La Rampa was a little slower than the special press broadband at the hotel, but I was still able to upload photos on Facebook. I could also watch the latest clip from the new Batman movie a friend posted. But I was blocked from watching “Dr. Who” via my Amazon Prime Instant Video account.

Since Skype isn’t available, many Cubans use another app called Imo to video chat with family and friends.

“You can download a movie, but it takes a while,” Dopico said. “It’s not worth the money.”

I realized the biggest difference when I was not sitting on the steps with the students. I had rented a room from a Cuban family who, like the vast majority of Cubans, didn’t have Internet in their home.

Unplugging from the World Wide Web was nice, but also frustrating. This was a work trip. I got anxious seeing emails the next day from my boss with questions that had gone unanswered overnight.

I found myself lying in bed clicking on my phone or laptop email account out of habit and rereading the same five cached messages over and over.

On Facebook, I must have looked a dozen times at a former colleague’s slide show of old chairs from our North Carolina newsroom, which would soon be torn down.

Cuba, with its authoritarian communist government in control of the Web, has one of the lowest Internet-penetration rates in the Western Hemisphere, with just 30 percent of its population online in 2014. But that’s up from 14 percent in 2009.

Some creative Cubans have gotten around the expensive regulations by hacking into the system and sharing the connection with friends for a discount.

That has meant big changes for young people such as Gabriela Ramirez, 18.

“My favorite page is Facebook. I have Twitter and Instagram. I have everything,” said the veterinary student. “It’s made my life better.”

Ramirez’s Facebook page reflects her love of her family and dogs. She posted video of her father’s birthday party. Her cover photo is a picture of her dog. She also likes to share videos of dog competitions and training.

And there are the requisite teenage selfies.

For Dopico, who posted photos of the Rolling Stones playing in Havana on his Facebook page, the Wi-Fi zones are just an early step. Next, he hopes, is cheaper Wi-Fi that is more accessible to everyone. But what he really wants is Wi-Fi in his home.

“It’s going to get better. It has to,” he said. “This is just an early version.”