Cuba to begin full internet access for mobile phones

HAVANA – Cuba says its citizens will be offered full internet access on mobile phones beginning Thursday, becoming one of the last nations to do so.

Mayra Arevich is president of the Cuban state telecom monopoly. She announced on national television Tuesday evening that Cubans can begin contracting 3G service for the first time Thursday.

Until now, Cubans have had access only to state-run email accounts on their phones.

The communist-governed island has one of the world’s lowest rates of internet use but that has been expanding rapidly since Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro declared detente in 2014. Expansion has not slowed with President Donald Trump’s rollback of relations.

Cuba authorized home internet in 2017 and hundreds of public Wi-Fi connection points have opened in parks and plazas around the country.