
Netflix Comes to Cuba - WestCoastJustin
http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/09/netflix-comes-to-cuba/
======
lordbusiness
This has to be a symbolic gesture, and hopefully one that rewards Cuban
Internet interests. Currently, this isn't a viable offering for the average
resident. I've travelled around plenty of Cuba, and Internet there will not
support streaming media. Think poor dialup speeds from the early 1990s, flakey
timeouts, dropped connections constantly, and you're imagining Cuban net
access.

I've not sampled the connections available to government officials, but until
Cuba gets a huge overhaul (read, installation) of a proper internet
infrastructure, and peering to multiple countries, they won't be able to make
use of this.

~~~
WestCoastJustin
Wikipedia has some figures from 2011-2013, which says the " _total bandwidth
between Cuba and the global Internet is just 209 Mbit /s upstream and 379
downstream_" for " _2.8 million users_ " [1]. A bit of a personal reflection,
but my life would be much different, in terms of work, education, and
entertainment, if I did not have access to reliable high speed internet.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba)

~~~
kenrikm
Not sure where that 2.8million users number comes from as there is no way ~20%
of Cubans have internet service. (11.2mil population) Unless they count being
able to get online with censored connections from some schools as having
internet?

~~~
meric
I would think one shared connection can have many users. It would be analogous
to a family sharing a computer going to Facebook which counts them as four
users not one, because four sets of services are being delivered. If they
meant connections I think they would have said that.

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corin_
A few interesting stats from The Guardian's article [1]:

\- Average monthly wage in Cuba is $17

\- 2.8m people with access to internet (26%)

\- 3.3m people with computer access (31%) "at home, work or school"

\- "A modest computer with a monitor costs $722 in Cuban stores, and at least
$550 on the black market", so I suspect more at work/school than at home

\- "The country has 53 broadband internet accounts today"

[1] [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/09/netflix-
launche...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/09/netflix-launches-
streaming-service-cuba)

~~~
mc32
I don't get it. Why? This can only be symbolic. Why not take it to Russia,
China even.

If this is symbolic it means netflix is willing to do things which don't go
toward profit but are willing to do 'symbolic' things. Meaning they are okay
with not making money, if that thing fits their ideology --which is fine,
great, but it just means there are other things which affect them beside a
motive for profits or altruism or free expression, etc.

It's like Caterpillar saying, we're going to build an asteroid-digger.

Or the WWF deciding to build a do-do bird conservation area.

~~~
corin_
Opening up to Cuba probably costs Netflix extremely little. In terms of rights
negotiating their content suppliers are currently getting nothing from Cuba so
will go for it without any discussions, so all Netflix needs to do is flick a
switch in their control panel to allow IPs from Cuba and issue a press
release.

Sure, even if 100% of Cuba's broadbrand subscribers signed up it's an
insignificant amount to Netflix, but for the low cost they may well think of
it as PR and/or marketing (and/or looking ahead to a day when maybe Cuba could
give them enough revenue to care about - though seems unlikely to me), not
just for ideological reasons.

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api
I'd love to see the inverse too -- Cuba coming to Netflix. Would be
fascinating.

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gandalfu
Some additional details on access to the Internet in Cuba:

1) There is only one ISP in Cuba: Etecsa. Cubans can not buy an Internet
account from them to use at home, accounts must be used a special cyber cafes
around the island at exorbitant rates by the hour/megabyte:
[http://www.etecsa.cu/?page=internet_conectividad&sub=interne...](http://www.etecsa.cu/?page=internet_conectividad&sub=internet)

2) Foreign entities, either persons or enterprises can have an interned
account, dialup or broadband, See the rates section for "Acceso dedicado" on
the same page. from 22 USD a month for 20h at dial up speeds all the way to
30010.00 CUC for 3.4 Mbs. Thats over $30000 USD.

3) Some cubans have dialup accounts either internet or limited access to
several national networks on which a proxy can be found (usually not legally)
this covers doctors, artists, athletes and others.

4) There is a booming black market for dialup accounts with rates going from
50 to 120 CUC (60 to 140 USD), usually foreigners time sharing their accounts
but other type of accounts can be found if you know the right people (illegal
and prosecuted).

5) Most universities have internet access with very limited bandwidth (~2mbs)
shared among students and professors.

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drnex
A few years ago, I read that cuba had like 250 MBPS for the entire island. A
cuban guy told me that dial up was as expensive as a cheap appartment. (I dont
know if their band has broadened, because Venezuela said publicly that they
would connect a cable to them, but never heard of it actually happening).

Considering the extremely little bandwidth they have, a homebrew wireless
'cable' from Florida or Mexico would be a game changer for Cuba.

~~~
jpatokal
Venezuela's Alba-1 has been operational since 2013.

[http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/25/cuba-confirms-
alba-1-fibe...](http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/25/cuba-confirms-
alba-1-fiber/)

~~~
drnex
Thanks for the clarification jpatokal. Also, the guardians article from corin_
[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/09/netflix-
launche...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/09/netflix-launches-
streaming-service-cuba) solved my doubts.

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tn13
I guess this is more of a symbolic gesture than anything else but I will take
it as reminder that we take for granted so easily the fruits of a free market
economy like united states while actively encouraging government involvement
for the so called "fairness". Cuba is probably most fair among all countries.
Almost everyone is pretty much destitute.

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pg_bot
This article and the press release by Netflix fails to mention anything about
their DVD rental service. Since Cuba's current internet infrastructure has not
been developed, streaming videos seems a bit premature. Some may dismiss this
as a token gesture, but I believe it would be smart for Netflix to expand in
Cuba as they did originally in the US.

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aceperry
Funny, I think it was 60 minutes which had a story about Cuba that mentioned
there was no internet in the country. Reporters seem to get a lot of facts
wrong.

~~~
eru
Probably `virtually no' internet.

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mmariani
Hey Netflix, what about Italy?

~~~
TillE
The problem is almost always complicated licensing agreements. Netflix will
launch when and where they're able to offer a good catalog of videos.

~~~
yaeger
Then they probably should have waited a bit longer with the Germany launch.

Seriously, I check allflicks to see what's new and out of 10 new
movies/tvshows almost always 7-8 of them are for kids. They might as well
rename their service "Netflix Kids: Germany" or something.

It's one thing only offering a tiny subset of the US catalog but quite another
to only add kids stuff. That area has got to be twice or three times the size
of the non-kids sections.

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rahimnathwani
"Internet access (which still isn’t ubiquitous in the U.S.)"

Wait, what?

~~~
dietrichepp
I found this document:

[http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publication...](http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/acs/acs-28.pdf)

Refer to page 3, where it is reported that 74.5% of households 25 years and up
had some internet subscription (and 73.5% had high-speed access). That's no
small number, but you could easily call "3 in 4" short of ubiquitous. Note
that many of the remaining households have some form of access to the
internet, just not a subscription at home.

~~~
mikeash
It's a true statement, but it makes little sense in context. Parentheticals
are supposed to relate to the surrounding text somehow, and I just don't see
it here.

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gbraad
"It’ll still require an international payment method for now, as well as
Internet access (which still isn’t ubiquitous in the U.S.)"

U.S. ???

