Does anybody know why the internet cafes in Cuba for Cuban citizens have recently been closed?  Separate Internet cafes for tourists are still open for business and internet access at work places is still apparently possible.
Likewise, cubans used to be able to receive text messages on their mobile phones or suitable home phones.  This has also been stopped.
These restrictions impinge greatly on the ability of people to communicate with friends and relatives outside of the country.  If anyone knows more about this I would greatly appreciate a reply.

I don’t think there ever were any internet cafes for Cubans.

Have you sent text messages to Cuba before?

Are you posting this from personal experience?

Where was there an Internet cafe in Cuba for Cubans?

howertings - 18 August 2008 07:16 AM

Does anybody know why the internet cafes in Cuba for Cuban citizens have recently been closed?  Separate Internet cafes for tourists are still open for business and internet access at work places is still apparently possible.
Likewise, cubans used to be able to receive text messages on their mobile phones or suitable home phones.  This has also been stopped.
These restrictions impinge greatly on the ability of people to communicate with friends and relatives outside of the country.  If anyone knows more about this I would greatly appreciate a reply.

Hi there when did this happen? I have been receiving and sending text messages and regular emails have been going back and forth the last one being only 36 hours ago

Publisher - 18 August 2008 07:29 AM

I don’t think there ever were any internet cafes for Cubans.

Have you sent text messages to Cuba before?

Are you posting this from personal experience?

Where was there an Internet cafe in Cuba for Cubans?

yes personal experience they only problem I have incurred is I can not send pictures/photographs but can receive them

i’m somewhat surprised too.  In discussions about the internet with cubans, no one has ever mentioned internet cafes for cubans,  i know numerous cubans have illegal internet connectios.  i’ve also noticed numerous cases where cuban staff used resort internet cafes as well as staff and other cubans using the internet access for tourists in etecsa internet cafes - maybe this is what the poster meant?

My apologies - I am talking from experience, but in relation to one part of the country.  Maybe I was a bit presumptuous in extrapolating my experience to the whole of the country.
In Vinales, Pinar Del Rio province, a separate internet cafe was opened for cubans some time ago when demand from the locals became so great.  Cubans could use this cafe for email access (I’m not sure about web access) at much reduced rates.  This cafe has now been closed for some time, with no apparent reopening in sight.  The other internet cafe for tourists continues to function normally.  Technical reasons have apparently been cited for the closure of the cafe to cubans, but it seems rather odd that the closed internet cafe is only across the road from the tourist internet cafe, which has no apparent problems.

In relation to text messaging, many home phones that have been installed in the last few years are effectively mobile phones without batteries and so only work when plugged into a power supply.  These phones have the capability of sending and receiving text messages, just like any other mobile phone.  It was possible in the past to send an international text message to one of these phones (outgoing international text messaging was not possible).  It does not appear to be possible anymore to receive an international text message on one of these phones.

Maybe someone could tell me from experience that this is only a local issue, not a national one.

to be fair, I was last in Cuba in January this year, and did not get up Vinales way (hope to this Nov if all goes well), but that was before Raol started making some (although minor and largely cosmetic) changes, so maybe Vinales was chosen as a testbed.  Wont rule out technical problems actulally being true - when I was in Playa del Estes area, the internet cafe in my hotel, the Tropicoco, had been down for 2-3 months with no idea when back up, so I had to go down the road to another hotel to use.

mahtal - 18 August 2008 12:46 PM

Publisher - 18 August 2008 07:29 AM

I don’t think there ever were any internet cafes for Cubans.

Have you sent text messages to Cuba before?

Are you posting this from personal experience?

Where was there an Internet cafe in Cuba for Cubans?

yes personal experience they only problem I have incurred is I can not send pictures/photographs but can receive them

My mistake turns out the internet conection belongs to a hotel

Yes there are internet cafes in Cuba. They are expensive for Cubans and they are censored. Also, they have not been closed. I received an e- mail this morning from a friend in Camaguey letting me know he and his family werer OK after Tropical Storm Fay.
Other than flooding and some loss of electric, no major damage

even for visitors they are expensive, 6-10 CUC/hour.  And slow -Usually 112k ADSL shared among all the machines in the cafe.  Most are run by ETECSA, the Cuban phone company.

The problem over there is not that is restricted per se. But really that the infrastructures are not normal for what we are accustomed. Get’s really slow… They have Internet in hotels, libraries, higschools and universities. And also in some of the local councils. And as we all know pirate connections in some houses… ( that sometimes in some places like Alamar, near Havana, the phone connections get so cluttered that you can’t even use your phone…)
The restrictions are big, but like the ones we take on our children…(sex, terrorism actions, violence in general, discrimination in general…) and like this is made in a very rudimentary way…you feel it. In a normal country they just load the net with spyware so they can follow your browsing… there, you just don’t access it…