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North Korea has also been connected to the Internet for a good long time -- doesn't mean that 99.9% of its population has any access. I do agree that this arti

North Korea has also been connected to the Internet for a good long time -- doesn't mean that 99.9% of its population has any access. I do agree that this article is a bit hypey, a few dozen Wifi hotspots that charge $2/hr isn't exactly a telecoms resolutions. Unlike NK, Cuba has had public Internet for a long time, it has just been expensive and inconvenient, and continues to be so.

dalke 11y ago
What is your point of bringing North Korea into the thread? There are plenty of countries which have worse internet penetration than Cuba, including Haiti, the Solomon Islands, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Surely the last a better comparison to Cuba than NK, no? BTW, a quick check of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba says that more about 3% of the population had internet access already by 2002, and about 25% now. Slow Internet? Certainly. Filtered? Yes. Expensive? Yes. But why bring up an irrelevant 0.1% statistic?
- hnal943 11y ago
  You can't think of any similarities between North Korea and Cuba?
  - dalke 11y ago
    I can think of similarities between North Korea and pretty much any other country in the world. I'm sure you can as well.
  - cleaver 11y ago
    Cuba's isolation is only from the United States. The rest of the world comes and goes as they please. It's a favourite tourist destination of many Canadians and Europeans. I've seen Chinese construction and petroleum interests there as well. As for Internet, they had it, but prices are far beyond what an individual can afford. It was also so slow it wasn't worth bothering. I gave up after 30 minutes having only downloaded a few emails. I recently met a Web developer visiting Toronto from Cuba. I was impressed that he could get any work done with such slow downloads.
- bostonpete 11y ago
  I don't think the NK comment was meant to equate Cuba and NK but rather to illustrate the fact that a country can have one or more internet connections and still not be considered connected as a country. Your earlier comment claimed that the title was a misnomer because there was a connection established in the early 90s.
  - dalke 11y ago
    It certainly was meant to equate aspects of Cuba and North Korea. The text "North Korea has also" is a direct comparison between the two countries, as is "Unlike NK, Cuba ...". I don't see how the comparison to North Korea is useful. For one, I've been distracted by the phrase 'connected to the Internet for a good long time'. I can find nothing to verify that statement, and I can't help but wonder if it's actually true. If Cuba has had 'public Internet for a long time', then how much longer has NK had internet access? Leave out the North Korea reference and the text becomes "Cuba may have had Internet for a good long time -- doesn't mean that more than a select few had any access". That's simpler, persuasive, and more obviously correct. Which makes me think there has to be a reason for mentioning North Korea in the first place, out of all the available possibilities.
    - tlunter 11y ago
      I'd say the reason to mention NK was because I'm sure if you asked most people in the US and most of Europe, they'd say that NK likely doesn't have the internet. But it does. Just not available to the masses. Availability to the masses is the point of the headline here.
    - adventured 11y ago
      I disagree. The North Korea comparison is extremely useful, seeing as Cuba and North Korea are among the third world nations with the least widespread public Internet connectivity over the last 20 years. They're also both ruled by Communist dictatorships and have been for many decades. They both have extraordinarily low median incomes, among the lowest on earth in fact. Cuba is better off than North Korea, that's well understood. Cuba should be equated to North Korea, for decades they've been in the same tier of economic development and the same tier of Internet access. The parent using Cuba as a reference makes perfect sense. What other nation would one compare Cuba to exactly? Where else do people earn $20 per month, have extremely limited access to the Internet, no freedom of speech or press, and live under a Communist dictatorship?
- caio1982 11y ago
  Anedoctal sidenote: internet penetration might be bad in Cambodia but at least in its "big" cities speed/latency is pretty decent :-)

dalke 11y ago

What is your point of bringing North Korea into the thread? There are plenty of countries which have worse internet penetration than Cuba, including Haiti, the Solomon Islands, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Surely the last a better comparison to Cuba than NK, no? BTW, a quick check of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba says that more about 3% of the population had internet access already by 2002, and about 25% now. Slow Internet? Certainly. Filtered? Yes. Expensive? Yes. But why bring up an irrelevant 0.1% statistic?

hnal943 11y ago
You can't think of any similarities between North Korea and Cuba?
- dalke 11y ago
  I can think of similarities between North Korea and pretty much any other country in the world. I'm sure you can as well.
- cleaver 11y ago
  Cuba's isolation is only from the United States. The rest of the world comes and goes as they please. It's a favourite tourist destination of many Canadians and Europeans. I've seen Chinese construction and petroleum interests there as well. As for Internet, they had it, but prices are far beyond what an individual can afford. It was also so slow it wasn't worth bothering. I gave up after 30 minutes having only downloaded a few emails. I recently met a Web developer visiting Toronto from Cuba. I was impressed that he could get any work done with such slow downloads.
bostonpete 11y ago
I don't think the NK comment was meant to equate Cuba and NK but rather to illustrate the fact that a country can have one or more internet connections and still not be considered connected as a country. Your earlier comment claimed that the title was a misnomer because there was a connection established in the early 90s.
- dalke 11y ago
  It certainly was meant to equate aspects of Cuba and North Korea. The text "North Korea has also" is a direct comparison between the two countries, as is "Unlike NK, Cuba ...". I don't see how the comparison to North Korea is useful. For one, I've been distracted by the phrase 'connected to the Internet for a good long time'. I can find nothing to verify that statement, and I can't help but wonder if it's actually true. If Cuba has had 'public Internet for a long time', then how much longer has NK had internet access? Leave out the North Korea reference and the text becomes "Cuba may have had Internet for a good long time -- doesn't mean that more than a select few had any access". That's simpler, persuasive, and more obviously correct. Which makes me think there has to be a reason for mentioning North Korea in the first place, out of all the available possibilities.
  - tlunter 11y ago
    I'd say the reason to mention NK was because I'm sure if you asked most people in the US and most of Europe, they'd say that NK likely doesn't have the internet. But it does. Just not available to the masses. Availability to the masses is the point of the headline here.
  - adventured 11y ago
    I disagree. The North Korea comparison is extremely useful, seeing as Cuba and North Korea are among the third world nations with the least widespread public Internet connectivity over the last 20 years. They're also both ruled by Communist dictatorships and have been for many decades. They both have extraordinarily low median incomes, among the lowest on earth in fact. Cuba is better off than North Korea, that's well understood. Cuba should be equated to North Korea, for decades they've been in the same tier of economic development and the same tier of Internet access. The parent using Cuba as a reference makes perfect sense. What other nation would one compare Cuba to exactly? Where else do people earn $20 per month, have extremely limited access to the Internet, no freedom of speech or press, and live under a Communist dictatorship?
caio1982 11y ago
Anedoctal sidenote: internet penetration might be bad in Cambodia but at least in its "big" cities speed/latency is pretty decent :-)