The state telecommunications company ETECSA announced this Sunday that voice and data services began to be restored in the Isla de la Juventud, following more than five days of almost total communication disruption that affected the special municipality in Cuba.
In a post on their Facebook profile, the company stated: "We inform you that, since this morning, there has been a gradual recovery of voice and data traffic in the Isle of Youth, indicators that reflect that the network now allows for communication. Efforts are ongoing to reinforce the restoration of services."
The outage originated on Tuesday, September 8, when damage to the two main connection routes between the territory and the national network left the special municipality virtually isolated: without mobile services and with landline communication restricted to local calls.
The repair was particularly complex due to the underwater fiber optic cable. As ETECSA explained and was cited by the state agency ACN this Saturday, "the weather conditions have complicated the repair actions of the damaged section of cable, which involves bringing it to the surface of the sea and meticulously executing the splice of the fibers." The company also warned that "it becomes complex due to the maritime links, which require special technical conditions."
As an emergency measure, a limited-use satellite link was established to ensure only the state radio and television signal during the outage. Specialists from ETECSA and other institutions, including Geocuba, participated in the repairs. The company did not provide any estimated date for restoration until this Sunday when it announced a partial recovery.
Prolonged communication blackout hit hard on Cuban families abroad, who had been unable to contact their loved ones on the island for days. A woman identified as Geida Ponciano expressed in a video that circulated online: “Those of us on this side are suffering. Not being able to talk to our family members. In my case, it’s my mother. It’s my mother, please.” Another user confessed: “I can't take this anymore, not knowing about my family, whether they have food or water, it’s very tough for those of us who are far away.”
The telecommunications outage occurs within the framework of a power and infrastructure crisis affecting the Island of Youth throughout 2026. Blackouts escalated from four hours daily in February to 18 hours in May and over twenty hours in July. On August 18, the situation reached a critical point: electricity was reserved solely for the hospital and water pumping, leaving the rest of the territory in darkness.
In the rest of the country, frequent disconnections have also been reported, associated with the widespread deterioration of energy conditions and the damaged and obsolete communication network. On August 3, the breakdown of a generator caused a national interruption of cellular service. And on September 2, a cut in SMS services left Transfermóvil out of service.
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