Related videos:
The online portal Servicios en Línea of the state-owned and sole Telecommunications Company of Cuba S.A (Etecsa) was recognized as a "champion" at the 2026 Awards of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), after receiving over 2.2 million votes in a global public online voting phase.
The project was ranked among the top five in its category, out of more than 1,500 entries and 360 preselected globally. The ultimate winner in each category will be announced in early July during the CMSI Forum, highlighted the state monopoly on its website on Wednesday.
Etecsa celebrated the outcome as a collective achievement. "For the development team, it represents not only their success and that of the company but also for Cuba, as it constitutes a key project in the digital transformation, aligned with the informatization of Cuban society," the company stated in its official note.
The recognition, however, contrasts with the reality that Cubans face daily. One year after the controversial rate hike implemented on May 30, 2025, which limited top-ups in Cuban pesos to 360 CUP per month, equivalent to just 4.5 GB of data, and created plans in dollars costing up to 35 USD, the quality of service has not improved.
According to the Speedtest Global Index from May 2026, Cuba registers only 7.21 Mbps in speed, placing it at the bottom of Latin America and among the countries with the slowest internet in the world.
In March, a total power outage caused a 65% drop in internet traffic, with a restoration that took 29 hours. Etecsa acknowledged that its backup batteries only allow for a few hours of operation during power cuts.
Meanwhile, the state monopoly has collected millions without users noticing any improvements. Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz revealed before the National Assembly that in just 46 days after the rate hike, Etecsa earned more than 24.8 million dollars, averaging 540,000 dollars per day.
A few days ago, the comedian Ulises Toirac posted a damning statement on Facebook, when he openly asked: "If the service is worse, if the phone connection barely works, if the data blackout is greater than the electricity blackout... Where is all that money?".
The Cuban engineer and entrepreneur Yulieta Hernández Díaz also weighed in: "Each day the connectivity worsens. Even with electricity, there is no connection. To make matters worse, with the terrible connectivity, the 4.5 GB (the basic plan at 360 CUP) can be used up in a couple of hours without achieving the old and necessary connection," she reflected.
In January, Etecsa added new charges by imposing international roaming rates of up to 3 dollars per minute for calls, one dollar per SMS, and one dollar per megabyte of data.
The company's monopoly has been extended until 2036, eliminating any possibility of competition for Cuban users.
With an average salary of around 3,000 CUP per month, the basic package of 360 CUP represents 12% of a worker's monthly income, while the plans priced in dollars are virtually inaccessible to most of the population.
Filed under: