The Cuban content creator Marloy Curbelo published a video on Facebook in which she openly questions the Telecommunications Company of Cuba S.A. (ETECSA) for selling unlimited data packages that are practically useless in light of the electricity crisis affecting the country.
Curbelo explains that when the power goes out in Holguín, his province of residence, communication is completely cut off. "There is no internet for anyone, for anyone."
The announcement came on Monday, just before the country experienced another total blackout. The National Electroenergy System (SEN) completely shut down, leaving over 11 million residents without electricity.
Curbelo's target of criticism is a promotion of unlimited night data —from 12:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.— that ETECSA is offering, valid until March 22.
The woman from Holguín warns that the offer is an unacceptable contradiction: "ETECSA sold unlimited data, but gentleman, for what? That's the biggest deception you can do to a human being."
The irony that Curbelo points out goes further. The nighttime data would only work in the early morning hours, a time when there is usually no electricity, and if there is, one would have to go out into the street to find a signal.
"What do you want, ETECSA, for me to go to the park at dawn? For someone to hit me on the head? Or for me not to sleep? In fact, I don’t sleep. I believe nobody sleeps around here with these blackouts," he states in the video.
The total blackout on Monday had a direct impact on telecommunications. Cloudflare Radar recorded a 65% drop in internet traffic coming from Cuba at 17:35 UTC, directly linked to the power outage.
"It's becoming really difficult for me, and please don't tell me to get a little solar panel, find a Wi-Fi, or I don't know what. Don't say that to me, please, I can't do any of that right now," Curbelo expressed.
The paradox highlighted by the content creator reveals a structural contradiction within ETECSA. The state telecommunications monopoly continues to launch data promotions while failing to meet its customers' needs, without compensating them, amid the collapse of the electrical infrastructure that makes its services possible.
Filed under: