ETECSA acknowledged this Monday that the energy crisis has disabled several of its systems, directly affecting the Nauta navigation service and the Transfermóvil electronic payment platform, two digital services commonly used by Cubans.
Through an informative note published on its official Facebook page, the state telecommunications company warned that "various systems and technological equipment are currently interrupted due to energy issues, which is causing disruptions in navigation through the Nauta service, electronic payments via Transfermóvil, as well as the management of associated services."
The statement specified that mobile data navigation remains operational and that the company's specialists are assessing alternatives to restore the downed services.
ETECSA did not provide an estimated date for restoration nor specified how many provinces or users were affected.
The company also warned that other institutions might experience impacts on their own services as a result of the same energy issue.
The announcement comes during an especially critical day for the Cuban electrical system. In Havana, reports from early this Monday indicated 62 affected circuits and 167 MW of deficit at 03:30, a figure that rose to 71 circuits and 169 MW just two and a half hours later.
Extreme blackouts have become a constant in Cuba. At least 23 of the last 30 days exceeded the threshold of 2,000 MW of impact on the National Electric Power System (SEN).
The vulnerability of telecommunications to power outages is structural and has been acknowledged by ETECSA throughout 2026.
The most serious incident occurred on September 18, when the eighth national blackout of the year left more than 80% of the radio base sites out of service and nearly 70% of the telecommunications cabinets, resulting in a 58% drop in internet traffic.
After that collapse, power outages put telecommunications in a tight spot and the company made a drastic decision: to halt the expansion of its access network to focus resources on the installation of photovoltaic panels.
However, progress in this area is also slow. By the end of September, 64 municipal capitals had solar panels in their main centers. The greatest advancement was seen in Pinar del Río, Villa Clara, Matanzas, and Granma, although this coverage does not guarantee continuous service.
Transfermóvil and Nauta have experienced previous interruptions in recent months. The payment platform was down on September 2 due to SMS failures, and Nauta encountered issues on August 17 following a fiber optic cut.
To all of this, it should be added that ETECSA has accumulated around 77,000 reports of interrupted fixed services, without the company announcing any compensation for users, despite the fare increase implemented in May 2025.
The company itself acknowledged in September that "it is not feasible to continue investing to expand the access network without the capacity to energetically support the telecommunications infrastructure," an admission that summarizes the structural paralysis in which Cuba's state telecommunications monopoly operates.
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