[ARS Technica] In slow opening of Cuban Internet, gov’t allows a public Wi-Fi network. "2Mbps, $900 a month"

[WolfDeville]

 

 

Less than two months after Netflix opened up its services to Cuba, the island nation now apparently has a new, free public Wi-Fi space.

 

For years, the Communist country has had notoriously expensive, slow, and restrictive Internet access. But with relations between the United States and Cuba starting to thaw, that's beginning to change. As of the last few weeks, according to the Associated Press, there’s a new government-approved hotspot at the cultural center run by the Cuban artist Kcho.

The artist told the news wire that it’s a shared network running over his personal 2Mbps connection. And while the project is a noble one, such a connection is almost certainly not fast enough to watch House of Cards.

 

Deal of the year :rolleyes:

 

Source

[thekeemo]

hey in egypt 1mbps is the same cost of 25 in canada soo...

 

and the average wage is about 20-80x less..

[Syntaxvgm]

Give it 5 years, and by then it'll be cheaper and faster than ISPs in america. 

But until then I finally feel a bit better about my ISP offerings. 

[Admiral Naismith]

Your profile image gave me Snoopdoggsyndrome...

 

Slow start, but the easiest way to topple regimes is to give people access to the truth.

Improvments + Tor may result in an increase in activism.

 

One can hope, right?

[Albatross]

It is a start. I hope it continues to get better for them.

[zacRupnow]

Give it 5 years, and by then it'll be cheaper and faster than ISPs in america. 

But until then I finally feel a bit better about my ISP offerings. 

Holy Signature Styx Magic!

[Nineshadow]

Communism and internet kind of contradict each other so...

[creativename]

Communism and internet kind of contradict each other so...

Not really. In communism everything belongs to the public, nothing is privately owned. Communism is the perfect form of government, that can never be achieved.

[kuddlesworth9419]

Cuba has free health care. If anything Cuba is a more developed country in terms of looking after it's people then America is.  Also free education.

[Nineshadow]

Not really. In communism everything belongs to the public, nothing is privately owned. Communism is the perfect form of government, that can never be achieved.

But you aren't allowed to even think something bad about communism or the dictator. If you do you'll probably be sent to jail.

In order for people to accept the communism, they had to limit them to know only the communism and nothing else. Internet will allow them to discover the rest of the world so...

[creativename]

But you aren't allowed to even think something bad about communism or the dictator. If you do you'll probably be sent to jail.

In order for people to accept the communism, they had to limit them to know only the communism and nothing else. Internet will allow them to discover the rest of the world so...

That's a big misconception brought by US propaganda. Communism is a form of government that promotes equality of all citizens, getting rid of social classes. All the government is supposed to do is make decisions for the people that would give everyone what they want, so nobody would have to fight. The basics of economics is competition, and competition brings about violent and negative behaviors out of people, getting rid of that is communism's goal, so everyone can be happy. Truly a perfect form of government, the reason it can never be achieved is because people are greedy, the leaders of communism usually get greedy after getting so much power the country ends up as a trainwreck.

[Nineshadow]

That's a big misconception brought by US propaganda. Communism is a form of government that promotes equality of all citizens, getting rid of social classes. All the government is supposed to do is make decisions for the people that would give everyone what they want, so nobody would have to fight. The basics of economics is competition, and competition brings about violent and negative behaviors out of people, getting rid of that is communism's goal, so everyone can be happy. Truly a perfect form of government, the reason it can never be achieved is because people are greedy, the leaders of communism usually get greedy after getting so much power the country ends up as a trainwreck.

Romania was communist untill '89.

 

I know how it was...

[Misanthrope]

Let me remind you of what type of technology levels you currently find in Cuba: 

 

 

The fact that they'll have network infrastructure and computers at all is already a tremendous win.

[creativename]

Romania was communist untill '89.

 

I know how it was...

There's a difference between dictatorship and communism. They just happen to go together most of the time. Communism as a concept is a perfect government, just that it always turns into to a dictatorship and has never succeeded.

[popman]

Give it 5 years, and by then it'll be cheaper and faster than ISPs in america. 

But until then I finally feel a bit better about my ISP offerings. 

As unbelievable as it might be, there's no incentive to improve Internet access in cuba.

[Cookie Monster]

But you aren't allowed to even think something bad about communism or the dictator. If you do you'll probably be sent to jail.

In order for people to accept the communism, they had to limit them to know only the communism and nothing else. Internet will allow them to discover the rest of the world so...

Communism has never existed in recorded history. It is only possible iff there is such a large surplus of goods that a market is impossible; the only 'good' that occurs with now is air.

 

If you use the American vernacular definition of communism western Europe since WW2 has survived being communist whilst maintaining a free and open democratic system.

[Misanthrope]

Communism has never existed in recorded history. It is only possible iff there is such a large surplus of goods that a market is impossible; the only 'good' that occurs with now is air.

 

If you use the American vernacular definition of communism western Europe since WW2 has survived being communist whilst maintaining a free and open democratic system.

 

People use "Communism" and "Socialism" interchangeably though, they likely mean "Socialism" or something even more specific but you're right in thinking that the road to dictatorial hell is paved with good communist intentions.

[Nineshadow]

Communism has never existed in recorded history. It is only possible iff there is such a large surplus of goods that a market is impossible; the only 'good' that occurs with now is air.

 

If you use the American vernacular definition of communism western Europe since WW2 has survived being communist whilst maintaining a free and open democratic system.

Communism has never existed?

 

What?

[suicidalfranco]

Communism has never existed?

 

What?

 

true comunism, the one envisioned by Marx, never existed; it always turned out to be comunism on paper, dictatorship irl

[BrianPena]

Let me remind you of what type of technology levels you currently find in Cuba: 

 

 

The fact that they'll have network infrastructure and computers at all is already a tremendous win.

That looks fucking awesome.

[Cookie Monster]

Communism has never existed?

 

What?

Communism is supposed to be the final state society reaches when economic surpluses become so large a market economy becomes irrelevant. An example of what it could look like is the Federation in Star Trek with their replicators  and extremely plentiful cheap energy; freeing their citizens from being forced to work for a living and enabling them to pursue whatever course they wish in life.

[Nineshadow]

true comunism, the one envisioned by Marx, never existed; it always turned out to be comunism on paper, dictatorship irl

Ah, that kind of communism. Well, it got pretty close to it.

[Nineshadow]

You think communism is perfect? Fucking hell you are a moron.

In the most basic form of its concept, it is.

There's some marxism in it though, and marxism has some super evil parts to it.

 

Communism however has never turned out perfect and never will. It's too much of an ideal to be real.

[creativename]

You think communism is perfect? Fucking hell you are a moron.

You are the moron if you don't know what communism is. It's the idea of a perfect society where everyone is equal and happy. If nobody has to compete for things nobody has to fight. The concept called communism has never been realized because of greedy leaders. And most people. Believe the stupid propaganda the US gave out and then people have moronic opinions on communism like you.

[Misanthrope]

So people shouldn't be allowed private property? So people who do more for society shouldn't receive more? So people who have worked hard to build something up shouldn't be allowed to pass that onto their children?

 

Lets take those statements: People wouldn't need private property if everybody was guaranteed a place to live no matter what: nobody would fear going homeless.

 

People who do more for society should receive more recognition. You are thinking in terms of money because capitalism forces the value of everything, even people, to be thought of in terms of money. A person who does great contributions to society should be recognized, but in Comunism that recognition wouldn't only go for people who directly impact economical gains but also to people who impulse society on other aspects like great artists, social workers, teachers, etc. Professions that are often overlooked and under recognized when all matters is how much money you can produce with your contributions

 

More over, people desire money and material gains because they are never able to materialize the fruit of their labour in something they can make them feel accomplished. If you are a hard worker and managed to create a really good piece of code, your recognition might be only money and such when it should be public praise and recognition for the fruit of your labor. Under Capitalism only the entity that controls the means of production gets said recognition. You praise "X" developer for their great code, not the individual coders. The reward you sent to them in the form of money ends up filling the pockets of people who had nothing to do with the code and just own the facilities and provided the investment money needed while the coder goes home with the same basic salary but more importantly feeling unfulfilled in his endeavor. That's why everybody aspires to have his own business, not because of the money but because of the desire to make a difference with what you do.

Under Communist theory, that wouldn't happen since the means of production wouldn't be a factor and the workers would not be alienated from the fruit of their labour. You can read more on that is called Marx's theory of alienation.