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Reuters
6 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Cuban students seek concessions as frustration grows over internet rate hikes
HAVANA, June 4 (Reuters) - Cuban students clamored on Wednesday for further concessions to roll back a rate hike on internet data, saying a decision on Monday to offer them discounted access did not go far enough. Students of at least one department at the University of Havana, the country's largest, called on their peers to skip classes in protest of the price hikes, which have been rebuked across the Caribbean island nation. Reuters spoke with several students outside the university on Wednesday who confirmed the calls for a class boycott in some departments. They said the situation remained tense on campus, and the issues unresolved, despite concessions on Monday from state-run telecommunications firm Etecsa that offered deeper data plan discounts for university students. Haydee Fernandez, a 28-year-old student, said the price increases were unreasonable. "I can't study if I don't have up-to-date (online) information," she said. "If it's necessary to stop classes, they should be stopped until there's a logical response to these needs." Four students said attendance appeared largely normal on Wednesday but that many students continued to threaten walkouts. Hany Blanco, 19, a first-year student, said she would continue going to classes but felt prices needed to be rolled back immediately. "The old prices were accessible but now it's gotten very difficult." Etecsa on Friday capped subsidized mobile data plans - offered for a steeply discounted rate of 360 pesos (less than $1 on the informal market exchange) - at six gigabytes, well shy of Cuba's average monthly usage of 10 gigabytes, according to state data. Prices for an additional three gigabytes soar to 3,360 pesos ($9), more than Cuba's monthly minimum wage of 2,100 pesos ($6). The price hikes - billed by the government as necessary to upgrade ailing infrastructure - have touched a nerve in Communist-run Cuba, where inflation has soared in recent years. The University of Havana acknowledged the debate over the hikes but warned in a statement late on Tuesday that it would not tolerate disruptions to its classes. Cuba rolled out widespread mobile internet in 2018, well behind much of the world. Cellphone data use on the island has soared since, with over 7.5 million users.
Arab News
6 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Cuban students call boycott over mobile tariff hikes
HAVANA: Cuban students called for a boycott of classes Wednesday over new mobile Internet tariffs that include steep fees for those who exceed their monthly data limits. Cubans say the tariff hikes implemented by state telecoms company Etecsa on May 30 will leave them with only a few gigabytes of data per month as purchasing additional data will be prohibitively expensive. Students have been particularly angered by the new pricing system, under which top-ups must be paid in hard-to-come-by-dollars or at a steep increment in Cuban pesos. While acknowledging 'progress' in negotiations with Etecsa, student union president Jose Almedia told AFP: 'We want more.' On Tuesday evening, student leaders at the University of Havana's mathematics and informatics faculty called for a boycott of classes in order to try to force Etecsa to annul the tariff hikes. Fellow leaders of the union chapter in the philosophy, history and sociology faculty backed the boycott, as did some students from the arts department. It was not immediately clear how many students heeded the call for the protest. But an arts student who attended classes on Wednesday told AFP there were 'practically no students' in the faculty. New pricing structure Etecsa gave no forewarning of its new pricing structure, which it said was necessary to fund investment in infrastructure. Rafael Gomez, an 18-year-old student at the University of Havana, said the new tariffs left mobile users with the bare minimum in terms of data. 'We were used to a certain system,' where customers can top up their credit as often as they like, he told AFP. Now, they are limited to 6GB of data, which Gomez noted 'is nothing and if you want to buy more, it costs over 3,000 pesos ($25), which you cannot afford on a regular Cuban salary,' Gomez said. The average monthly salary on the communist island is 5,700 pesos, or $47. Faced with the outcry from students, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said Sunday that the government was looking at 'options' for 'the most vulnerable sectors, including our dear students.' After talks with student bodies Etecsa on Monday announced that students would be allowed two monthly top-ups at 360 pesos ($3), compared with one for the rest of the population. Further top-ups have to be paid in dollars or at the eye-watering price of over 3,000 pesos. The concessions failed to assuage the anger of many students. Brian Gamez, a history student, told AFP he favored 'peaceful protests' but was afraid that a mobilization could lead to vandalism. The Cuban government has been wary of stoking popular discontent since July 2021 when thousands of people took to the streets in a rare show of defiance to demonstrate over shortages of fuel, food, medicine and electricity. One person was killed and dozens injured in the protests, which Havana accused Washington of orchestrating.
