ABSTRACT
Since 2015, the Cuban government has rolled out a series of fixed Wi-Fi access points along streets and in public parks. Many forms of limited internet have been available in Cuba since 1996, yet outside of select institutional facilities, high-priced hotels, and a smattering of internet navigation halls, this also marks the first availability of “high-speed” internet to a general public. Although many studies of the internet in Cuba have focused on affordances for the production and consumption of content – for example, use of the internet by bloggers to circulate counter-narratives about daily life and politics – it’s also interesting to consider the location-based context of mobile internet in Cuba. Centrality, fixity, and publicness of router locations are key to the new Wi-Fi culture, as users take mobile devices to a fixed location to get online. Based on research in Havana, this chapter considers the state’s decision to introduce mobile internet in fixed pubic locations – as opposed to through data plans or home contracts – alongside its policy to create a different sort of internet use, one that prioritizes the communal, or social, possibilities of the web.
