Latin America and Caribbean

About 2,000 Homes In Cuba Will Soon Have Internet Access

The country's state-owned telecommunications company will install internet in select homes for a two-month trial.

About 2,000 Homes In Cuba Will Soon Have Internet Access
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Thousands of Cubans will soon have internet access in their homes for the first time.

The Cuban government announced the country's state-owned telecommunications company will install internet in about 2,000 homes in Havana.

Those homes will be online for two months. And, if all goes well, authorities say the trial could be extended.

This is a big step for Cuba, which has one of the lowest online connectivity rates in the world.

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Until now, only top officials and certain professionals could get internet access in their homes mostly because the infrastructure was lacking. Everyone else has relied on public Wi-Fi hot spots or cybercafes to get online.

Monday's announcement comes about a week after Cuba inked a deal with Google to speed up local access to its services.

Along with the home internet trial, the country's telecommunications company says it is also lowering the price of public Wi-Fi by 25 percent.