The energy crisis hitting Cuba is causing new interruptions in telecommunications services in Havana. The prolonged blackouts and the challenges in maintaining electrical backup for technological facilities have started to affect various communities in the capital more intensely.
The Territorial Division of the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (ETECSA) in Havana reported this Monday on an increase in disruptions in various localities of the municipalities of Habana del Este and La Lisa.
"We inform you that, due to the current energy situation and difficulties with the support of technological sites, after long periods of operation, there has been a notable increase in disruptions to various telecommunications services," stated the entity in its announcement.
According to the company, in the municipality of Habana del Este, the challenges are concentrated in Alamar, Camilo Cienfuegos, and Villa Panamericana.
In La Lisa, the mentioned localities are La Lisa, Alturas de La Lisa, Balcón de Arimao, San Agustín, and Arroyo Arenas.
In total, ETECSA identified eight areas in two municipalities of Havana where there has been an increase in telecommunications problems.
The company acknowledged that the restoration of services directly depends on its facilities receiving electricity again.
Services will be restored as power is received, he stated.
The explanation leaves residents of the mentioned areas without a specific timeline for the normalization of communications, as the restoration depends on the availability of electricity supply.
When prolonged blackouts occur, telecommunications facilities rely on batteries, generators, and other backup systems to keep their equipment operational.
If those resources are depleted or stop functioning, services such as mobile phone service, calls, and Internet access may be affected, depending on the type of installation and the infrastructure that remains active.
In this case, ETECSA did not specify which specific services are interrupted in each locality, so it is unclear whether residents have simultaneously lost both telephone and internet connectivity.
The situation is particularly complicated for those who need to communicate with family, use digital services, work, or carry out tasks that depend on a stable connection.
The new disruptions in Havana come after the company itself acknowledged the deterioration of its ability to maintain telecommunications during power outages.
In September, ETECSA admitted that the lack of electricity hindered the operation of numerous technological sites and limited their ability to expand the network.
In that statement, the company revealed that during the national blackout on September 18, more than 80% of the radio base sites and nearly 70% of the telecommunications cabinets were out of service.
It was also reported that internet traffic experienced a reduction of up to 58% compared to similar periods.
The entity then recognized that it was not viable to continue expanding the access infrastructure without having the necessary backup energy capacity to keep it operational.
The consequences of that dependency had already been laid bare during other recent interruptions.
At the beginning of October, ETECSA reported issues with Nauta browsing and the Transfermóvil electronic payment platform, after energy problems took several systems and technological equipment out of service.
Two days later, the company announced the restoration of both platforms, although it did not provide technical details regarding the actions that allowed them to be restored.
However, the crisis has also caused difficulties in other provinces. On October 11, it was announced that more than 100 of the 179 existing radio bases in Camagüey could be shut down simultaneously due to the electricity deficit.
The territorial director of ETECSA in that province, Luel García Lorenzo, acknowledged that the main cause of the interruptions was the lack of energy supply.
When a significant number of radio bases stop functioning, the facilities that remain operational can become overwhelmed by the increase of users trying to connect through them.
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