How Do Cubans Use Internet? The Effects of Capital

We conducted an exploratory study to understand Cuban Internet use from individual viewpoint. Drawing upon Bourdieu’s Capital Theory, this study seeks to understand forms of capital that affect Cubans’ Internet access and use. We collected data from online survey posted on a Cuban blogging site and analyzed the narratives of 82 Cuban citizens who shared their Internet use experience. Our data analysis shows that economic and cultural capital are the key factors influencing Cuban’s Global Internet and domestic Intranet access, which in turn influenced the development of their social and technical capital. Moreover, our analysis reveals Cuban’s value in Internet access for communication and knowledge acquisition, and reveals their improvisation behaviors when they experienced access barriers. Suggestions for future research on Cuban Internet use are discussed. 1. Motivation: Internet use in Cuba In a networked world where citizens of developed countries enjoy the affordable and ubiquitous Internet access and social media technologies, it’s difficult for us to imagine a place on the Earth where getting online is not only a luxury but also a challenge. According to a BBC News article published in February 2016, only about 5% to 25% of the entire 11.48 million Cubans have any type of Internet service; this makes the Caribbean nation one of the world's least connected countries [6]. Among the barriers to Internet access are high prices, slow connection speed, and extensive government regulations. In 2015, Cuban government opened 35 public WiFi hotspots to provide Internet access in Havana and other parts of the country. Today there are 421 WiFi hotspots and 258 public-access “navigation rooms” across the island nation, according to Cuba’s state-owned telecom provider, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA). However, the cost of Internet access remains daunting for majority of the Cuban citizens: for the slow Internet connection, Cubans were charged $2 per hour, which was equivalent to about one-tenth of a Cuban’s average monthly salary [6]. Now, the cost has been reduced to 1.5 CUC (equivalent to $1.5) per hour, according to ETECSA. (CUC is Cuba’s tourist currency, which is tied to the U.S. dollar). In recent years, Cuban Internet infrastructure has witnessed modest improvement, including the installation of an undersea cable connecting Cuba and Venezuela in 2015, and the 3G mobile trial by ETECSA in a small area of Cuba. Now the 3G is more widely available, but it requires a compatible phone [19]. To get online in Cuba, people have to find a public-access location, buy WiFi access and get a little piece of paper with a login and password, and wait for the slow rendering of webpages. The frustration with the slow Internet speed was shared by foreign visitors such as a Fortune News reporter named Erin Griffith, who made a 3-day trip to Cuba in April 2016 to report on former U.S. President Obama’s historic visit to Cuba. Ms. Griffith expressed her frustration and anxiety during the one hour of trying to go online from a WiFi hotspot in La Rampa, a six-block long stretch of the 23rd street in Havana. Ms. Griffith vividly described [8]: “I enter the 12-digit user name and 12-digit password from my paper slip and wait. The operation fails. I type it in again. And then again. I realize I should have charged my laptop for this. Eventually the spinny wheel stops. I have been rejected. I enter my user name and password three more times, each time more determined. I am not giving up. I have already come this far.This is going to be the time. I can feel it. I type in my 12-digit login and 12-digit password for what must be the 100th attempt. Hemingway never wasted an hour wrestling with crappy Wi-Fi. I smash an ant crawling across my screen with my login paper. ” [Reported from Havana, Cuba, 4/22/2016] Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences | 2019 URI: https://hdl.handle. net/10125/59951 ISBN: 978-0-9981331-2-6 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Page 5143 For the Internet access, Cubans need to make trips to the limited number of WiFi hotspots or “navigation rooms” across the island country. As Ms. Griffith made the remark, “People don’t get on the Internet in Cuba. They ‘go to Internet. ’ . I guess if it rains, people in Havana simply don’t go to Internet. ” Although we can find some Internet-related statistics on Cuba from world organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Bank, their statistics are based on reports of the Cuban Ministry of Communication so our understanding of Cuban citizens’ Internet use behaviors remains limited. However, understanding individual use behaviors and capturing user values from their use experience have positive impacts on the design of information and communication technology [7]. This understanding is especially important in Cuba, a developing country where the state-owned telecom ETECSA (http://www.etecsa.cu/) remains one of the few government monopoly suppliers of telephone, mobile and Internet services in the world [18]. Thus, in this study, we focus on those Cubans with any types of Internet services (including both Internet and Intranet) to understand their experience with and perceptions about their Internet use. To achieve the research objective, we adopt Bourdieu [2]’s concept of capital, the material and symbolic resources that are essential to the competition. In Cuba, resources for Internet connectivity are limited, making the lens of capital appropriate for the study. Hence, drawing upon Bourdieu’s Capital Theory [1], this study focuses on individual viewpoints and seeks to reveal the various forms of capital that affect Cubans’ Internet access and use behaviors. More specifically, this study addresses the following two questions: (1) What patterns have Cubans demonstrated with their Internet/Intranet use? (2) What forms of capital do Cubans believe affect their Internet/Intranet use? Data collection was performed by one of the coauthors from Cuba. The analysis of the qualitative data collected from 82 Cubans’ narratives suggested that economic and cultural capital were key factors contributing to their Internet and Intranet access while social and technical capital turned out to be the key consequences of their Intranet/Internet use. Moreover, our analysis reveals Cuban’s value in Internet access for communication and knowledge acquisition, and reveals their improvisation behaviors when experiencing access barriers. Findings of the study provide some useful insights into the emerging Internet adoption and use phenomenon in Cuba, and enhance our understanding of digital divide in a different national context. 2. Investigative context: Internet in Cuba 2.1. History and current development Cuba is considered as one of the few countries remaining on the Earth that still restricts its citizens’ access to the global telecommunication network. It is ranked poorly in two key indices of information and technology development: the Freedom House Freedom on the Net score (FON), and the information and communication technology (ICT) Development Index (IDI) by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The FON is a function of obstacles to Internet access, limits on content and violations of user rights. Only five of 65 nations are rated as less free than Cuba. The IDI is a function of user access, use and skills. In 2016 Cuba’s IDI is ranked 135th of 175 nations in the world [11]. According to the ICT statistics reported annually by ONEI, the Cuban Office of Statistics and Information, 4,539,200 people in Cuba have access to the “Internet,” but they are counting people with access to the global Internet plus people with access to Cuba’s domestic Intranet [21]. Moreover, the term “user” is not defined in the Internet-related statistics by ONEI: it is not clear who they are counting as an Internet "user. " Does it refer to anyone who has purchased access time once during the year, people who theoretically have access to the Intranet at work or school, etc.? Although the number of users of the global Internet was not reported, the government claimed that one million people have permanent accounts with ETECSA, Cuba’s monopoly ISP [22]. This could give us a rough estimate about 10% of Cuban population with global Internet access. Finally, it should be noted that the vast majority of those with access to the global Internet do so over dial-up or slow (up to 1 mbps) WiFi links. We can place the Cuban Internet in a regional context by considering the Human Development Index (HDI) compiled by the United Nation’s Development Program and the ICT Development Index (IDI) compiled by ITU. The HDI is a function of income, health and education, and Cuba's HDI is the tenth highest among the 33 nations of Latin America and the Caribbean. (It was second only to Chile as of 2011). Despite that relatively high rank, Cuba’s IDI is the lowest in Latin America and the Caribbean, suggesting the lowest level of ICT development in the region [11]. The sad state of the Cuban Internet is a product of its history. Cuba connected to the Internet shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, which Cuban government contributed it partially to the Soviet glasnost (openness). The Soviet Union’s collapse also triggered a Cuban economic crisis caused by the end of Soviet