Since May 2016 you can use WIFI in all public places such as parks, squares, and restaurants if you buy an Internet SIM card from Eteksa office.
You will surely know the spot by the crowd of people sitting with their laptops, cell phones, or tablets, or you can simply ask for the direction. There are many Eteksa spots in Havana, especially in the Old Town.
The Internet SIM cards are sold restrictively – a person can obtain only three cards after showing a passport. You can also get a card at the hotel you are staying at. The cards price is continually dropping. A card for a half on hour time of Internet service will cost you 0,5 CUC /1 CUC = 1 USD/, one hour is respectively 1.00 CUC and 5 hours of being online will cost you 5 CUC /the information was last updated in 2019/. You can be offered a card in the streets for 3 – 4 USD /CUC/ – find out more here about the currency in Cuba. Here is the card itself:
Once you are done, close the menu in order to save the remaining minutes. You need to use your card within a month, after that it will be invalid.
The Internet spread around Cuba a year ago through these cards. Two years ago the prices varied between 6-7 USD per hour. If you want fast Internet, you should use it in the evening, since the social network is very popular among Cubans. Skype and Viber are also available in Cuba.
Cell phones and mobile internet
There is only one mobile operator in Cuba and it is Cubacel. Only Cuban citizens are entitled to a Cuban phone number. The price for a call between Cubacel users is around 0.45 USD per minute and past 11.00 pm – 0.07 USD. Therefore, the Cuban is more talkative in the evening. Cubacel also offers mobile internet service but it is still underdeveloped, so I don’t recommend it
Cubans still use predominantly their home phones where they talk almost for free.
NEW! /Information from February 2020/ If you have a Cuban SIM card and you want to use mobile Internet you need to check whether the suffix of your number is entitled to Internet.
The Cuban card works like a regular one. What is interesting, though, is the fact that if your Cuban card is out of credit you can make a phone call to another Cuban SIM card with credit by adding *99 to the number. This way only the second card will be charged.
The roaming is functioning in Cuba, although sometimes the number of the in coming call is not displayed. To conclude, here is my advice: on packing your bags for Cuba make sure you buy some minutes for Cuba from your home mobile operator – it will be much cheaper.
