Disappointment after President Obama's trip to Cuba

President Obama meeting with Cuban entrepreneurs last March

Shortly before President Obama went to Cuba last March, I wrote a post on Internet-related announcements that might be made during the trip. It was pure speculation -- things like a Havana-Florida undersea cable or copyright and cyber-security agreements, significant infrastructure deployment -- and none of it happened.

However, The President did make some Internet-related announcements. He said Google would be announcing wireless connectivity during his visit and Stripe would offer their Atlas service to Cuban entrepreneurs -- providing a US tax ID, bank account and Delaware incorporation along with use of their global payment service. Stripe said they would be working with the Merchise Startup Circle in Cuba. The President also announced that Cisco would be offering their Cisco Academy training at Cuba's University of Information Science.

So, what has come of all this? Not much.

Google's wireless connectivity is the biggest disappointment. I've speculated on significant infrastructure and content investments Google could conceivably make in Cuba, but all they announced was a single WiFi hotspot at the studio of Cuban artist Kcho. Google supplied 20 Acer Chromebooks and a number of Nexus 5 phones with Cardboard viewers, and got a lot of publicity in return. Perhaps this is a necessary relationship-building step (Kcho is well connected), but in itself this hotspot is less than a drop in the bucket -- 99% hype and 1% substance, like Kcho's previous hotspot.

How about the deal with Stripe and their Cuban partner Merchise? In March, I contacted Merchise and Stripe to learn more about their business relationship. Merchise had nothing to say about their relationship with Stripe and Stripe said "Merchise is a partner in the the Stripe Atlas Network ... it isn't so much that we expect them to represent or market Stripe in Cuba; rather, if they know any specific entrepreneurs or businesses in Cuba for whom Stripe Atlas would be helpful, as a Network partner they can refer those entrepreneurs to us for early access to the Atlas program."

Last week, I asked Stripe if anything had come of the partnership to date and was told they had no concrete updates, but they had "been in touch with many Cuban entrepreneurs." I also asked Cisco about the status of and plans for their Cuban project, and was told that at this time they had nothing to add to what was said in the blog post announcing the relationship last March.

So far, nothing concrete and significant has come of the Internet projects Obama announced.

In addition to these announcements, The President met with Cuban entrepreneurs who described their businesses and briefly discussed them with him. During the meeting, he also introduced AirBnB co-founder Brian Chesky, praising him as a successful Internet entrepreneur and a role-model for young Cubans.

President Obama has continued his emphasis on entrepreneurship, most recently hosting 11 young Cubans at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

I've written about Cuban tech startups and support them wholeheartedly, but President Obama's upbeat tone overstates their potential impact. Internet companies focused on the Cuban market will not make a significant contribution until Internet access and the economy are improved considerably. Even then, no company will come close to the success of AirBnB with its $24 billion valuation without global reach. There is a potential market for Cuban educational and entertainment content and network services in Spanish-speaking nations, but Cuban entrepreneurs will not be able to go after those opportunities without major policy changes.

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Update 6/30/2016

I heard from the Merchise Startup Circle with respect to their Stripe partnership. They confirmed that they do not represent Stripe or sell Atlas membership -- their role as a member of the Stripe Network is to refer potential customers to Stripe. They are not alone in this -- they are one of over 100 incubators, accelerators, investors, and others who can refer top global entrepreneurs to the program. They do not receive a commission for the referrals and they do not hold equity in the enterprises they refer. Their payment is the satisfaction of supporting and encouraging the Cuban startup community. That is consistent with the tone of their meetings and their academic roots.

As mentioned above, Stripe says they have been in touch with many Cuban entrepreneurs and I bet most of them were referred by Merchise.

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Update 11/4/2016

This is not directly related to the Internet, but it is yet another disappointment after announcing optimistic plans for US entrepreneurs to work with Cuba.

The Obama administration gave a US company permission to build a tractor factory in Cuba's Mariel free-trade zone, but the Cuban government has refused to permit them to do so. Some say their reluctance to deal with US companies (other than those supporting tourism -- airlines, hotels, room rental and mobile phone roaming) is an effort to pressure Congress into eliminating the embargo.

Oggun tractors will be built in Alabama, not Cuba

Connection speeds from the LACNIC 25 Conference, hotels and the Google-Kcho Center

The LACNIC 25 Conference was held at the Havana Convention Center (Palacio de Convenciones) this week and Doug Madory, a frequent contributor to this blog, was there and sent me speed tests from the Convention Center and his hotel:

Convention Center speed test

Hotel speed test

Doug also forwarded a hotel speed test run by another attendee, Martin Hannigan, @TheIcelandGuy:

Hotel speed test

Access at the hotels was what we have come to expect -- around 1 mbps -- but connectivity at the Convention Center was much faster. I don't know whether that much bandwidth is always available at the Convention Center or if ETECSA allocated extra resources for this hi-tech conference.

Doug's next speed test was run at the Google-Kcho Center. As shown below, he used one of the center's chromebooks and connectivity was about four times the speed of the hotels.

Google-Kcho center speed test

Doug said there were maybe 4 or 5 chromebooks in use at the time he ran the test -- "Mostly young people on Facebook so not bandwidth intensive."

It is clear from this that the initial report that the center would provide connectivity for 40 simultaneous users at 70 times the speed of ETECSA's public hotspots, was incorrect. My guess is that they should have said 70 mbps backhaul shared among all the users currently online.

Finally, it is interesting to note that all four link speeds are roughly symmetric. We expect download speeds to be faster than upload speeds in the US because we download a lot more than we upload -- about 70% of our downstream, peak-period traffic is streaming entertainment.

But, in Cuba, home connections are over dial-up lines and the connections at public access spots and hotels are too slow for video entertainment. One mbps is fast enough for audio and even low-quality video chats, so symmetric bandwidth makes sense (as long as Cuba has El Paquete for the distribution of entertainment).

Opening of the Google+Kcho tech center -- much ado about not much (again)

The opening of the Google+Kcho technology center was covered in an article in CubaDebate, which includes 14 photos and two videos.

Google has equipped the center with 20 Acer Chromebooks and a number of Nexus 5 phones and Cardboard viewers. Each Chromebook comes with 100 GB of cloud storage.

The man is in the wheelchair demonstrating Google Cardboard for the press. Kcho
is on the left and Google's head of Cuba operations Brett Perlmutter is to his right.

I have to admit that I find this disappointing for a couple of reasons.

First, it was widely reported that this center would provide connectivity for 40 simultaneous users at 70 times the speed of ETECSA's current public hotspots, but the article just says ETECSA has provisioned one of their access points at the studio. If that is the case and they limit access to 40 simultaneous users -- 20 using Chromebooks inside and 20 more using their own devices outside -- performance should be better than the other ETECSA hotspots, but the speed per user will be more like twice as fast than 70 times as fast.

The studio will be open to the public five days a week, from 7 a.m. to midnight. I guess Kcho will have the whole link to himself on weekends.

Still, even if it is no faster than a public hotspot, it will be free. That sounds good, but the lines waiting to get in will run the length of the Malecón. How will they ration access -- who will get in and for how long? Perhaps access will be reserved for professionals.

The article asks us to imagine how great it will be for the robotics faculty at CUJAE, a Cuban university, to hold a video conference call with researchers at the Alphabet-owned robotics company Boston Dynamics. Two problems -- that sounds a little patronizing and it has been reported that Boston Dynamics is up for sale.

I'm also disappointed in Google. They have developed and deployed amazing technology and are a huge company that has invested a lot in well-publicized trips to Cuba. Couldn't they have afforded to contribute their own high-end Pixel Chromebooks and Nexus 6 phones instead of Acer Chromebooks and Nexus 5 phones? And, how about a terabyte instead of 100 gig? It's not a big deal, but it feels cheesy given the hype surrounding the opening of the center.

There is too much kowtowing and hyperbole -- "Kcho's magic, Etecsa's megas and Google's technology have converted this place into the first connection point on the island, completely free for all Cubans." The article makes a Google Hangout on Air and Cardboard VR sound like cutting edge technology.

Another disappointment was Kcho and Leysi Rubio, head of the communications (press relations?) department, looking a gift horse in the mouth by taking pot shots at the US government and the "blockade." There is no suggestion that Cuban government fear or mistrust might impose any limitations.

Regardless, the valiant Kcho vowed to persevere -- he doesn't know how -- but, somehow, he will keep doing things. Good grief.

The press coverage of this project was also disappointing. A Google search for "Google Kcho" news turns up hundreds of articles on the project during the last few days. The story was covered in many nations and languages -- from Turkey's Daily Sabah (in English, Turkish or German) to the New York Times. The Internet tech press all jumped on the story.

I've only read a fraction of these stories, but they all have one thing in common -- they are either direct copies or paraphrases of the story published by the Associated Press after an exclusive tour of the facility on March 21, 2016. They even repeat a symmetric connection speed of 70 megabytes per second, which I suspect should be 70 megabits per second.

I would not be so disappointed if this were an isolated case, but I am afraid that click-supported Internet news may inevitably be superficial, redundant and concentrated.

I may have gotten some of this wrong, but it has the same publicity-stunt feeling as Kcho's first free hotspot. Let me know if you get online at the Google-Kcho center and your experience is different. I'd also be curious to know which, if any, of the Google Drive services are blocked in Cuba.

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Update 4/4/2015

Kcho is well connected. My friend Sam Lanfranco pointed me to this photo of Kcho (left) waiting with Foreign Trade and Investment Minister Rodrigo Malmierca and member of the Cuban Parliament Esteban Lazo Hernandez for the arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama at the Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso.

Embed from Getty Images

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Update 4/18/2015

This report on the Google+Kcho Center clarifies the bandwidth question. The original AP story said connectivity would be 70 megabytes per second, leading to repeated assertions in the press that connectivity would be 70 times faster than the typical 1 megabit per second service at the 60 paid public access hotspots around the island.

It turns out that users were disappointed when they found that they had difficulty streaming YouTube videos.

Since there are only 20 simultaneous users in the center, it seems that Google+Kcho has the same backhaul speed as the other public access hotspots. The "70 megabytes" per second must actually be 70 megabits per second backhaul for the entire center, not for each user.

I don't know whether this misunderstanding was an intentional effort to mislead the public and perhaps even President Obama or just the Internet press copying what they had read in the AP story.

In addition to slow connections, it turns out that users are not allowed to bring phones, laptops, cameras or flash drives to the center and sites like Cubaencuentro, Revolico and 14ymedio are blocked.

The advantage this hotspot has over the other public access hotspots is that it is free and the users do not have to bring their own devices -- but free means long lines waiting to get one of the 20 tickets that are given out each hour.

Internet-related announcements around President Obama's trip to Cuba

There were important financial and university-related announcements.

Last month, I speculated on possible Internet-related announcements that might be made in conjunction with the visit of President Obama. Nothing I mentioned came up, but let's look at what was announced just before and during the President's visit.

The week before the President arrived in Cuba, changes in regulations on travel, trade and finance were announced. Two of those changes were:

• Cuban origin software is now authorized for importation into the United States.
• Non-immigrant Cuban nationals in the United States will be permitted to earn a salary or compensation consistent with their visa status. U.S. companies are now also authorized to sponsor or hire Cuban nationals to work or perform in the United States.

That should clear the way for Cuban apps in Google, Apple and Microsoft stores as well as outsourcing. The ball is in Cuba's court.

The same week Verizon announced an agreement to provide direct telephone connections to Cuba. That is nice, but it does not provide Internet connectivity. There were rumors that AT&T would make an announcement during the visit, but, as far as I know they did not.

During the visit, several further developments were announced.

Silicon Valley payments startup Stripe will make it possible to give Cuban entrepreneurs access to the US financial system. Cubans will be able to incorporate a US company, set up a US bank account, and start accepting payments from the US. Stripe will be working with the Merchise Startup Circle, which has been working to form and facilitate a Cuban startup community. Again, the ball is in Cuba's court. Will they allow self-employed workers or cooperatives to open those accounts?

There was more financial news. Paypal expects to bring Xoom, their global money transfer service, to Cuba by the end of the year and Western Union announced that they would phase in money transfers starting at the end of the second quarter. (It seems like they are already offering that service -- perhaps a reader can clarify this for me).

Priceline subsidiary Booking.com will offer online reservations at Cuban hotels and Airbnb announced that they were no longer restricted to serving US customers and would book rooms for anyone travelling to Cuba.

Google tech center -- not sure what it will provide. Photo by Ramón Espinosa/AP

The most widely publicized announcement was that Google would offer free, high-speed Internet access to Cubans at a technology center belonging to the Cuban artist Kcho. The center will also have laptops, Google Cardboard and phones.

The announcement referred to 70 mbps speeds and 40 simultaneous users, but it is not clear whether those users will each have 70 mbps or they will be sharing it. I have asked Google for clarification, but have not received a response.

If it is shared, it will be similar to their current hotspots, but free. If it is per user, it will be inspirational and novel and there will be very long lines waiting to get in.

Regardless, like Kcho's earlier free access over DSL, it is a drop in the bucket and to a great extent a publicity stunt. That being said, both the President and Google executive Brett Perlmutter implied that this was just Google's first foray into Cuba and they hoped to announce more in the future.

President Obama announced a $1 million fund for US-Cuba academic partnerships. The impact of this program will not be immediate, but it is important. Today, the few Cuban students with Internet access have slow connections and tight usage caps. Imagine the reaction of a Cuban exchange student in a computer lab in a US university with gigabit connectivity. Similarly, what insights might come from the exposure of a US student to the constraints on and innovations by Cubans?

Cisco training at UCI may foreshadow competition for Huawei.

A university was also involved in what may have been the most important announcement. Last January, a high-level US delegation travelled to Cuba. At that time, Cisco proposed the establishment of a Cisco Academy training and certification program at Cuba's prestigious University of Information Science. The proposal has been accepted.

This is great news and it implies a Cuban willingness to be open to competition in the infrastructure market. In the early days, Cisco equipment was used in Cuba, but today Huawei is dominant. Cisco-certified graduates will be ready to work with Cisco equipment.

Now, if Cuba would also be willing to allow competition in the Internet service market ...

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April 17, 2016

A special edition of Cuba's weekly sneakernet, El Paquete Semanal, contains full coverage of President Obama's trip to the island. The distribution features coverage of the his speeches, his press conference with Raúl Castro, a short documentary on his life and his and his comedy skits with Cuban comedian Pánfilo.

You can see the comedy sketches below, but neither is a threat to Saturday Night Live.





Cubans can also purchase a pirate DVD covering President Obama's trip:

Google will provide a free hotspot in Havana

The hotspot when it opened last March

A year ago, Cuban artist Kcho opened a free public hotspot with a DSL connection to the Internet. Today, Google announced that they would be providing a 70 mbps link from Kcho's studio to the Internet. As before, Kcho is paying the bill and providing free connectivity.

The hotspot will be open five days a week, from 7 a.m. to midnight, for about 40 people at a time. Google will also provide Chromebooks and Cardboard viewers (with phones??) at the center.

Forty people sharing 70 mbps is slow and 40 people in a nation of over 11 million is not meaningful, but, like the DSL link last year, it will generate a lot of publicity. (If it turns out they are provisioning 70 mbps for each of 40 users, 2.8 gbps, it will become a cool demonstration/inspireation site).

Kcho being interviewed

It would be interesting to know what the infrastructure supporting this hotspot looks like and whether it is related to the recently announced broadband pilot study for parts of Old Havana. (Scroll to the end of the post).

Google's announcement says they are "also exploring additional possibilities around increasing and improving Internet access, but they’re at early stages." Google could do so much more. For example, they have installed wholesale fiber backbones in two African capitals and are offering service to competing retail ISPs. It's hard to imagine ETECSA allowing that, but one can dream ...

Google's wholesale fiber backbones

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Update 3/23/2016

Here is a short video clip of Kcho and Google Representative Brett Perlmutter outside Kcho's studio, talking about their plans for connectivity, Chromebooks and Cardboard.



I've made inquiries, but still have no details on the Internet link. Stay tuned.

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Update 3/23/2016

Laptops on a table inside the new Google technology center that will offer free internet at the studio of Cuban artist Alexis Leiva Machado, better known as Kcho.

I was hoping to see Pixel Chromebooks, but this is just a start -- Google announced that they would accomodate 40 simultainous users and there would also be Google Cardboard and phones.

Ramón Espinosa/AP

In a nation with nearly no Internet access, a little bit gets a lot of hype.

In mid June, Cuba announced a plan to provide public access at 35 WiFi hotspots. As we noted, 35 WiFi hotspots is a drop in the bucket for a nation with over 11 million people, yet they have received a lot of press coverage.

A Google search found 651 articles with all of the words Cuba, WiFi and 35 in the title since mid June when we reported the story. Google finds over a million hits for stories with those words anywhere in the post and virtually all major news outlets -- from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal and Fox News covered the WiFi roll-out.

The same thing happened when ETECSA began offering public access to the Internet in "navigation rooms," when they announced a plan to make outdated DSL service available to half of the Cuban homes and when a Cuban artist called Kcho opened a single WiFi access point at his studio.

Cuban artist Kcho received world-wide attention for a single WiFi hotspot.

In a recent Havana Times post, Irina Echarry paints a realistic picture of the "Many Unsolved Problems of Cuba’s Wi-Fi Hot Zones" -- the overcrowding, long lines, discomfort, lack of privacy, cost, danger, etc. I am happy to see Cuba take a few halting steps toward a modern, open Internet, but, as Echarry shows us, the reality does not justify the hype.

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Update 9/14/2015


The hype continues as Raúl Casto and Panama's president Juan Carlos Varela visit Kcho's studio. I wonder if President Obama would stop by for a photo op if I were to open my home WiFi router for use by people in my front yard? After all, I have a much faster connection to the Net than Kcho.

A drop in the Internet bucket -- big news or not?

Adonis Ortiz chats with his father, who lives in the U.S., using a free Wi-Fi network at a center run by famed artist Kcho, in Havana, (Desmond Boylan/Associated Press)

The Cuban artist Kcho received permission from the Cuban telecommunication monopoly ETECSA to provide free WiFi access to his Internet connection.

Cuba has many open WiFi hotspots, but this is different in two ways: it is authorized by the Cuban government and it provides access to the Internet, not the Cuban "intranet."

Users of the hotspot share a single 2mbps ADSL link so it must be slow when only one person is online and very slow when several are sharing the access point. By itself, one slow access point in the nation is essentially meaningless, but might it be the first of many?

I have suggested a number of low cost steps the Cuban government could take immediately if they are willing to open the Internet. For example -- how about rolling out WiFi access to satellite links throughout the nation?

Is this an isolated drop in the bucket or an indicator that ETECSA is willing to open the Internet? I suspect it is the former, but maybe ...

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Update 3/13/2015

This is a photo of young people sharing the DSL link -- with this many users on line at one time, the service must be very slow -- nobody is watching Netflix.

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Update 3/15/2015

Havana Times reported that the connection speed is only 500 kbps, not 2 mbps, the free WiFi connections have been available for nearly 3 months and they have been offering free Internet access at the center library for a year and a half.

Login instructions -- up to 15 simultaneous users

Since this is not a new development, why are they getting publicity now?

Kcho in the news -- why now?

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Update 3/19/2015

Isbel Diaz Torres has written a post describing his experience using Kcho's shared link to the Internet. It is no surprise that it was too slow to be useful. In an hour and a half, the only thing he succeeded in doing was reading tweets. He was unable to post a tweet, use Gmail or Facebook, etc.

Needless to say, he found the experience frustrating and concluded the post saying:

The worst part of this isn’t the bad or non-existent service but the logic behind it. As you can see, access to the Internet isn’t presented as a right but as a hand-out, a gift that this magnate of the arts gives us, through a paternalistic, populist and opportunistic gesture towards those who do not have his privileges.

I am puzzled by this "event." It has garnered a lot of publicity -- I have seen more Google alerts and stories on this "breakthrough" than any event I can recall.

No doubt Kcho and anyone associated with the project knew in advance that the connection would be unusable. Does it have any significance? Why did Kcho do it and why did ETECSA allowed it?

Fidel Castro visits Kcho at the Romerillo Studio in January 2014. Photo: cubadebate.cu

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Update 3/24/2015

As we see in the photo above, Kcho is supportive of and supported by the government of Cuba, yet he says the Cuban government should have no fear of the Internet. He does not fear an Arab-style "Cuban Spring." As he put it "Cuba is not North Africa."

This is reminiscent of the debate between Cuban leaders who feared the Internet in the 1990s and those who argued for embracing it. At that time, Raúl Castro argued against the Internet, stating that "glasnost which undermined the USSR and other socialist countries consisted in handing over the mass media, one by one, to the enemies of socialism."

Will he rectify that mistake?

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Update 4/5/2015

WiFi access to the Internet was authorized and tested at Kcho's studio for a couple of months before they went public with a very successful publicity campaign. This seems to have been a trial balloon for similar WiFi access points and now ETECSA has announced that there will be more beginning in May -- "¡Viene la WiFi! Ahora sí."

I don't know any of the details like -- what it will cost (Kcho's access is free), whether it will be to the Internet or intranet, what the back--haul speed and latency will be, etc. This still feels like a drop in the bucket -- stay tuned.

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Update 4/25/2015

ETECSA has expanded cell coverage and installed a public WiFi spot in in Sancti Spíritus. Unfortunately, they are still focused on SMS and phone calls and the WiFi backhaul is 2 mbps, which they say can be shared by 90 simultaneous users -- unusable.

I understand that this is a short term, interim step, but it is a drop in the bucket. I hope they experiment with other short-term technologies while planning long-term policy and technology.

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Update 5/3/2015

ETECSA will increase the number of Internet access "Cyber Points" from 155 to over 300 by late this year. ETECSA Cyber Point access is slow and expensive -- I would be curious to know who the users are and how they are using it. That would be an interesting survey.

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Update 5/23/2015

New free, public-access WiFi hotspots are coming on line in Trinidad and Sancti Spiritus.

I wonder how many hotspots ETECSA plans to roll out. I am not sure whether these sites offer access to the Internet or the Cuban intranet and I don't know about connection speed and latency either.

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Update 6/3/2015

ETECSA is installing hotspots in Guantánamo and Baracoa. They say they will operate 24 hours a day and handle 50 simultaneous users. One has to wonder what the backhaul speed and radio configuration are if they hope to satisfy that many users. I also wonder whether the undersea cable or satellite will be used for international traffic (if it is available).

If you or someone you know has used one of the new hotspots, please let us know what it was like.