Adjustments in telecommunications with compensations in education

 

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 4 (ACN) Cuban deputy prime minister Eduardo Martinez Diaz stressed on the TV program Mesa Redonda that the recent measures taken by the Cuban Telecommunications Company (Etecsa by its Spanish acronym) are part of the government's plan to boost the economy by 2025.

After a thorough analysis, it was decided to apply adjustments that ensure the sustainability of the telecommunications sector without harming key areas such as education, he said.

Martinez Diaz highlighted the progress made between 2018 and 2025, including the increase in mobile lines from 5.3 to more than 8 million, while the number of internet users on personal devices grew from zero to 7.5 million.

4G coverage exceeds 50% of the territory, while average data consumption (10 GB/month) places Cuba above the regional average.

However, sustaining this infrastructure requires hundreds of millions of dollars annually, and the imbalance between growing demand and lower income made it unsustainable to postpone measures, he explained.

However, the government prioritizes guaranteeing digital development without affecting essential rights, implementing protections for students and teachers, calling for citizen understanding in the face of economic challenges, and reiterated the commitment to the informatization of society, Martinez Diaz added.
The deputy prime minister acknowledged the social impact of the new measures implemented by Etecsa, but stressed their necessity in view of the current economic situation.

The official admitted that this represents a loss of something that had been conquered, but emphasized the temporary nature of these measures and their basis in the economic reality of the country.

As part of the strategy to mitigate the impact, ETECSA has designed a package of compensatory measures specifically for the educational sector.

The company's president, Tania Velazquez Rodriguez, explained that free access will be provided to more than 26 educational platforms belonging to the ministries of Higher Education, Public Health, Culture, INDER and CITMA.

In addition, the use of the national application ToDus, which offers 600 MB for file exchange and unlimited messaging for only 25 CUP, will be actively promoted as an economical alternative for communication between teachers and students.

In the area of technological infrastructure, Velazquez announced the transfer of physical servers from universities to ETECSA's data centers, which will guarantee their stable operation in the face of fluctuations in the national electric power system.

These measures will initially benefit more than 200,000 university students, although they require the completion of a registry of mobile numbers for their full implementation.

The Minister of Higher Education, Walter Baluja, contextualized these measures by recalling the technological advances in Cuban universities, which currently have bandwidths of up to 1 gigabit and more than 500 wifi points, although he acknowledged that they are still insufficient.

We have held meetings at the University of Havana, the ISRI and medical universities to gather criteria, said Baluja, highlighting the value of the proposals that have emerged from the academic community.

For general education, Minister Naima Trujillo assured that the Cubaeduca platform will continue to be free of charge and Picta will be promoted as a recreational-educational tool for children.

She also announced differentiated policies for the 230,000 teachers in the country, recognizing the difficult conditions in which they work.

In his conclusions, deputy prime minister Martinez Diaz ratified the government's commitment to the digital transformation of the country.

We will work to recover the quality of service and reduce costs; these measures are temporary and can be reviewed as the economic situation improves.

The deputy PM announced that the process of registering educational users will continue and that further explanations will be offered in future broadcasts of the Mesa Redonda, with constant monitoring of the impact of the measures implemented.