How are telecommunications services in Cuba going today? – Rebel Youth

The situation is complex, but the Cuban Telecommunications Company SA (Etecsa) does not give up and works every day to maintain and recover the necessary levels of vitality in terms of communications.

In an exchange this Wednesday with Lidia Esther Hidalgo Rodríguez, Commercial Vice President of Etecsa, we learned about the efforts that its workers make daily to, with what they have, guarantee a level in all layers of the country’s communications network that allows providing services to both entities and individuals.

Hidalgo Rodríguez explained that the current financial situation for the company is unfavorable in terms of attracting fresh foreign currency, necessary to continue with investments that make it possible to increase connectivity or the quality of services.

Added to this are growing fraud phenomena, with websites that clone Etecsa’s identity and create very attractive recharge options from abroad, using national packages. The end user, explained Hidalgo Rodríguez, receives a message with his recharge, but it is not from the official source, which is Etecsa, but from a private number, and all the money involved in that operation does not reach the company. The deviations for this concept, he assured, reach millions of dollars.

If we add to this that almost 90 percent of the technologies that Etecsa uses are imported with very high costs – such as, for example, a radio base, whose investment is around 100,000 dollars just for the basic installation -, and also the The effects of the US blockade against Cuba further increase these prices, the financing required to guarantee operations complicates the sustainability of the country’s telecommunications system.

Associated with this is the national cost, since the basic data package is 110 pesos for a gigabyte, on average, but this Internet access is paid in foreign currency to the international provider and, therefore, is a subsidized cost for the user.

Cuba currently has two fiber optic cable solutions and other satellite solutions, all of which are expensive, especially the latter, but they remain operational because, in addition to guaranteeing services such as television, they bring voice and data to distant communities, especially in the mountains. .

Service as a priority

Regarding cell phones and data, the country is currently going through a situation of growing saturation in the 3G network, which is used, fundamentally, for voice, due to its wide population coverage. Furthermore, said Hidalgo Rodríguez, part of the data is made on this network, and the financial situation does not allow us to expand investments. The same thing happens with 4G base stations, used for data.

In fixed telephony, the investments that began with the digitalization process at the end of the 90s made great progress, but the exterior plant—the cables and cabinets on the street—has a significant level of obsolescence. Thus, Etecsa counts an average of 16,000 daily interruptions in this service, the vast majority in the capital, some of them taking more than seven days to resolve. This is a technology that has many components and they are all imported. There are many repairs that we do with the innovation of our staff, who continues to look for solutions, said the Commercial Vice President.

On the other hand, higher levels of damage are recorded in the public network by unscrupulous citizens, in addition to others who, inadvertently, undertake actions such as burning garbage under telecommunications cables, which often leads to them breaking, and Changing them is complex due to low stocks.

Another element is the copper used in cables, which is increasingly expensive, and investments in fiber optics are needed to move to another level in the 1.5 million fixed lines that the country has.

To all this, we add that the national electro-energy situation has impacted places that have been left without electrical backup. At this time, approximately 450 base stations are reported to be interrupted daily for this reason, and a considerable number of fixed telephone services are reported. Damage to generator sets that remain on for long periods of time is also being handled, commented Hidalgo Rodríguez.

The board stressed that these complexities are faced daily by groups of people who work 24 hours a day to ensure that the service is maintained.

Although it is very expensive, Cuba guarantees access to telecommunications in the most remote areas of the country. Photos: Courtesy of Etecsa

Qproblems to solve

This year the company is focused on improving and optimizing the telecommunications network based on the resources it has.

For this reason, some problems are currently faced, such as the lack of supplies to replace broken Nauta Hogar modems – hence the importance of taking good care of what you have – or alternative landline telephone equipment (the so-called TFA). Likewise, there is a deficit in achieving the replacement of SIM cards. A recurring question in the population, said Hidalgo Rodríguez, is why there are new lines and not to change a SIM of a number already in use. In that sense, he explained that SIM cards are purchased in batches, and one for new lines is not the same as another for replacement cards. Each SIM is programmed for a function, he assured.

The Commercial Vice President of Etecsa recommended that users ensure good care of the SIM card. Among the tips provided are avoiding scratches, exposure to heat, preventing it from bending or being exposed to water, or making improper cuts to adapt it to a specific cell phone.

ORn work that doesn’t stop

Despite the obstacles to be overcome, Etecsa has continued to expand the national telecommunications network, and the country now has a total of 5,684 radio bases, 1,300 of them with 4G technology, the latter in places with a high density of people that allow 50 percent coverage. percent of the population.

Added to this are 280,000 homes with Nauta Hogar, and 7.8 million mobile lines, 158,000 of them incorporated in the first quarter of this year, and 7.1 million are provisioned for internet. From 2020 to date that means a growth of 1.7 million lines.

Mobile voice, meanwhile, doubled minute traffic in the last four years, and closed 2023 with 16 million total. The use of SMS, contrary to what it may seem in these times of the Internet, has also grown with applications such as Transfermóvil, which carries out millions of daily operations, should reach five million users in June and provides 67 different services in the palm of your hand. hand.

The digital transformation of all the country’s processes makes institutions demand more connectivity, and today 54,000 services of this type are already connected, both in state and non-state establishments, with an average connection of 6 MB/s. This phenomenon also requires growth in data centers and greater investments, since today more than a thousand national IT solutions are housed there.

In 2023 and 2024, Higaldo Rodríguez explained, we have also ensured a growing level of events in which we manage to provide the required quality.

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