Telecommunications in Cuba

Based on my experience, the only provider for internet service to the tourist is the Cuban owned telecommunications company, ETECSA.  They own and run the land line, cell phone service and internet service.  In order to use their internet service, you have to go to one of their stores, located in most medium to large cities, buy a "scratch" card that has the codes and password you need to enter on one of their computers.  In spite of the high speed optic cable from Venezuela recently being completed, the service was still very slow on my last visit a few weeks ago in March, 2013.  The cost of the card is 3 CUC for 30 minutes and 6 CUC for an hour.  You watch the clock click down on the lower right of your screen as you log in.  Not all web sites are available and attachments don't usually open. 
These same types of ETECSA scratch cards (same price) are also found in most hotels and you use the computers supplied by the hotels, usually in the lobby or in an internet room.  The cards look almost exactly like the ones you get at the ETECSA offices but they are not interchangeable (they have different photos on the other side).  The ones you get at one hotel will also work at other hotels, but not at the ETECSA store.  It has been my experience that you do not have to be staying at the hotel to use them.  Some will require ID to sell you a card so always carry a copy of your passport while in Cuba- you will need that to change money as well.   

I had also read in the past that wi fi (wee fee as they say) was starting to surface and actually used it for the 1st time on my last trip.  You will find it in the more upscale hotels.  We found it at the Hotel Sevilla (sp?) on Prado and at the Hotel Parque Central in Havana Vieja near central park.  I always take my laptop to watch the pirated movies I buy cheap in Cuba and to watch my Spanish lesson videos, so I decided to try it out.  Plus, my Cuban girlfriend's computer had not been updated since I gave it to her several years ago, so we decided to take both of them to the hotel lobby and give it a shot.  You have to buy the similar scratch card, but the two hotels we looked into only had the 5 hour cards for 35 CUC.  Since her need to download all the Windows updates was greater than my need to check email, we started with her computer (only one computer can log in with the card purchased) and found that she needed 160 + Windows updates, since it had never been connected to the internet.  Needless to say, as slow as the system was, we ate up most of the 5 hours with her download time and, because of the amount of time it took, I drank a lot of overpriced beer from the hotel bar.  But, it was worth the experience.  Just remember that you have to go back to their web sight and manually log out (not just close your browser) or it will continue to eat up your time even if you turn off your computer.  Skype does not work thru their wee fee.

As far as cell phone service goes, I always rely on the phone I bought for her since my U.S. issued phone does not work down there (different mhz frequency) but I understand that only a Cuban can open an account to get the SIM card that activates the phone.  But, I could be wrong and it would be very easy to have a Cuban friend buy the account in his name.  If you do not reload the card with more time within a certain time frame (several months), you loose the account and the phone number and have to start all over.  I think they re-issue the numbers after a while and that is one of the reasons Cubans get a lot of calls from people they don't know.  It is also very common to watch a Cuban get a call on his cell phone, look at it, not answer it, then walk to a cheap pay phone and call them back with Moneda National. 

Finally, if one Cuban cell phone calls another Cuban cell phone, it charges both accounts for the time.  But, a call or text from outside Cuba does not charge them.  I find it cheaper to call her cell phone using Skype and even cheaper to send a text to her phone by Skype, but you are limited to about a three sentence text.

Thanks for your post dwright!

Armand