An anecdotal account of the technology landscape in Cuba before thawing relations with the US
Matt Stempeck / The Daily Dot :
Context & Ripple Effects
This piece is a baseline snapshot: Matt Stempeck's account captures Cuban connectivity when access was scarce, just before the US-Cuba thaw opened the door to American platforms. The related coverage shows what that moment grew into — Obama's tech teams built programs abroad whose fate later became uncertain, while Cuba's own numbers tell the domestic story.
Internet access in Cuba rose from roughly 5-10% in 2015 to 40-50% by 2020, driven largely by a ~5x expansion of public Wi-Fi hotspots and ETECSA's rollout of mobile internet to select users. Where this snapshot ends, the question the wider coverage poses is which tech sphere a newly connected Cuba plugs into.
First-order effects
- ETECSA becomes the chokepoint for Cuban connectivity: its hotspot buildout and selective mobile-internet launch make the state telecom, not foreign platforms, the gatekeeper through which millions of first-time users arrive online.
Second-order effects
- As US firms weigh entry during the thaw, they face a market already structured around state-controlled access — the same dynamic playing out elsewhere, where China began restricting US services companies a decade ago in what later analysts framed as the opening move of the tech cold war.
Third-order effects
- If connectivity expands under national control rather than open competition, Cuba drifts toward alternative tech blocs: its place among the signatories of the Shanghai agreement establishing a World AI Cooperation Organization alongside China and Russia mirrors Russia's push to mandate domestic software and wean its population off US tech.
The trend: Countries gaining mass connectivity are increasingly choosing between integration with US platforms and state-aligned alternatives, with telecom gatekeepers and geopolitical blocs deciding the outcome rather than consumers.