By Kejal Vyas
Internet access in Cuba is among the world's most restricted and
expensive but a rapprochement with Washington is boosting hopes for
connectivity improvements and the development of some cool
apps.
That's what technology experts will be aiming for when they
convene at Facebook Inc.'s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters later
this month to focus on solutions for the Communist island
nation.
The so-called Code for Cuba "hackathon," organized by
Miami-based nonprofit group Roots of Hope, aims to attract U.S.
engineers, software developers and entrepreneurs to work on
increasing access to information as the Caribbean country begins
flirting with freer telecommunications.
"Our goal is to empower Cuban people as the conversation on
technology there is more open now," said Natalia Martínez, chief
innovation officer at Roots of Hope, which opened registration for
the hackathon in late March.
The idea is to create programs that can be applied in Cuba
immediately, Ms. Martínez said. The tricky part, however, is a
requirement to stay within the confines of Cuban law, which forbids
satellite connection and restricts private imports of goods like
wireless routers, she said.
Since the Cold War foes announced their historic détente in
December, companies and nonprofit groups have been eyeing new
business and technology openings in Cuba. San Francisco-based
home-rental service Airbnb Inc. began offering accommodations to
licensed U.S. travelers in Cuba this month, while Netflix Inc. in
February made its movie-streaming service available. Google Inc.
executives also visited the island last month in hopes of expanding
there.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro are
expected to meet this weekend in Panama at the Summit of the
Americas, Cuba's first time participating in a gathering of the
hemispheric group.
"There is a real potential if there is a will from the Cuban
side," a senior U.S. State Department official, who asked not to be
named, said after bilateral talks in late March that centered on
telecommunications.
Whether Havana eases censorship and its telecommunications
monopoly is unclear, the official said, and there are still
uncertainties over how U.S. companies will be paid, since Cuba can
only purchase telecom equipment and services in cash.
Cuba has set ambitious goals, aiming to have 60% of its 11
million inhabitants using the Internet with connections reaching
over half of the country's homes by 2020.
At the moment, only about a quarter of Cubans access the
censored Internet, according to Cuban government statistics, while
home connections are illegal except for foreigners. Going online at
designated cyber centers and hotels is unreliable and slow. At
around $5 an hour, it's also too costly for Cubans, who on average
earn $20 a month, according to the government statistics. Only two
million people have access to 2G mobile Internet technology.
"As long as the Cubans create an environment that's attractive
to investment...I think services will reach the island," the U.S.
official said last month.
Huawei Technologies Co., China's largest telecom equipment
maker, is in talks with Cuba to provide commercial networking gear,
said a company spokesman in late March.
In recent months, Cuba opened its first public Wi-Fi hot spot,
offered a 50% discount on Internet access through April 10 and
began permitting dissenting opinions on two online state news
forums.
"This is going to be a generational shift for Cubans," said
Claude Pupkin, executive vice president of business development at
Newark, N.J.-based IDT Corp., which in March became the first U.S.
company in decades to have a direct phone contract with Cuba that
allows calls to ping between both countries without going through a
third nation.
"It's going to be baby steps and it's going to feel incremental
and slow, " Mr. Pupkin said. "But in five to 10 years, there's
going to be a lot more freedom, more cellphone penetration and
Cubans will be more connected to the world."
IDT said it is evaluating other opportunities in Cuba, including
introducing its money-transfer service.
Such efforts are aided by the Obama administration's move to
increase limits on remittances, ease travel restrictions and allow
the use of U.S. credit cards in Cuba. However, Washington's trade
embargo and its naming of Cuba on a list of state sponsors of
terrorism since 1982 still keeps most U.S. businesses away.
Nonetheless, Cuba's struggling economy and reduced aid from
allies such as embattled Venezuela may force the island to open up,
political analysts say.
"The Cuban regime is nervous, but the problem is that they can't
break out of their economic isolation without breaking out of their
information isolation," said Larry Diamond, a senior fellow at the
California-based Hoover Institution think tank, who will be serving
as a judge during the hackathon.
Starting on April 25, technology experts will come together at
Facebook to brainstorm innovative ways for Cubans to work around
Internet restrictions and connect into the global information flow.
Teams will then compete for prize money to develop the best
solution possible during the two-day challenge.
Roots of Hope's first hackathon last year in Miami led to the
development of two applications that allow Cubans to perform basic
Internet functions through email, a useful proposition in a country
where users have email accounts but find many websites are
blocked.
One of the programs enabled searches on Google and Wikipedia as
well as Twitter, while another established a Craigslist-like online
market for Cubans, all via email. The market application has some
40,000 monthly users on the island, said Ms. Martínez, of Roots of
Hope.
Organizers say the easing of U.S.-Cuba relations may give
developers in the San Francisco Bay Area more options to help
Cubans engage with the world.
"If our only goal is to open up Cuban society and help generate
the conditions for transition to democracy, then this was the right
thing to do," said Mr. Diamond.
Write to Kejal Vyas at kejal.vyas@wsj.com
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