WEBVTT - How the Internet's Just Starting to Transform Cuba

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<v Speaker 1>Cuba right now is an island in transition. Entrepreneurs can

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<v Speaker 1>now run private businesses, Tourism is taking off, and people

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<v Speaker 1>across the country are gradually getting access to the internet.

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<v Speaker 1>In November, my husband and I went there for eight

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<v Speaker 1>days on vacation while everyone else in the US was

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<v Speaker 1>enjoying Thanksgiving. And you took some recording equipment with you

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<v Speaker 1>just in case you found an interesting story. Even though

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<v Speaker 1>I try to encourage you to just enjoy your time off,

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<v Speaker 1>you did. You did. It's true. But it was on

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<v Speaker 1>my very first day there that I found my story. Omero,

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<v Speaker 1>my taxi driver was driving us around Havana in this

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<v Speaker 1>beautiful pink convertible Cadillac. Okay, tell me. We passed by

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<v Speaker 1>all these parks and public squares that were teeming with people,

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<v Speaker 1>but they weren't really hanging out and socializing with each other.

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<v Speaker 1>They were wheezed onto public benches as if they were

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<v Speaker 1>on the subway, like hunched over their smartphones. Is many

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<v Speaker 1>people for gheefly phase will It turns out those crowds

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<v Speaker 1>were enjoying a fairly new luxury in Cuba three or

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<v Speaker 1>four year before it's impossible for internet for the people

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<v Speaker 1>but is figure out before. It's a many change, and

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<v Speaker 1>that change that Omero is referring to, that's when the

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<v Speaker 1>state owned telecom company at Texas began rolling out the

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<v Speaker 1>country's very first WiFi hotspots. That's when the Internet first

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<v Speaker 1>became available to the massive It's possible. The Internet is

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<v Speaker 1>not limited. The bird is the corn is no good connection,

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<v Speaker 1>his bird is low. But it's possible. It's through this

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<v Speaker 1>very patchy network access from the crowded benches of Havana's

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<v Speaker 1>parks that the Internet is just starting to change the

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<v Speaker 1>way Cubans live and work, decades after it's transformed our

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<v Speaker 1>lives lives in the developed world. Hi am Akito, and

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Pat Cary, and this week on Decrypted, we're going

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<v Speaker 1>to be asking you to imagine a time before we

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<v Speaker 1>hailed Uber's, before we asked Sirie for directions, before we

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<v Speaker 1>got to watch our favorite movies with just a couple

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<v Speaker 1>of taps or clicks. As I traveled around, I asked

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<v Speaker 1>people to tell me their stories. I really wanted to

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<v Speaker 1>understand what the internet could do for young people and

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<v Speaker 1>especially for people trying to set up their own businesses Cuba.

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<v Speaker 1>Maybe just a short flight from the US, but it's

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<v Speaker 1>actually really unlike anywhere I had been before. Okay, so

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<v Speaker 1>I've heard that it's an idyllic island, vegetation long, pristine beaches.

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<v Speaker 1>I've always wanted to visit. Yeah, Havana is like full

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<v Speaker 1>of gritty charm. Um. It was a wonderful place to be.

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<v Speaker 1>But actually, the thing that really struck me as soon

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<v Speaker 1>as I arrived is how different the economy is from

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<v Speaker 1>what I'm used to in the US. A couple of examples, Um,

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<v Speaker 1>government wages are really incredibly low, just twenty five dollars

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<v Speaker 1>a month, and that's in the cities. In the countryside,

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<v Speaker 1>it's only fourteen dollars a month. Another thing I noticed

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<v Speaker 1>is that access to information is controlled in interesting ways,

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<v Speaker 1>so it's not often as easy as you would think

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<v Speaker 1>to access news, for example, about the rest of the world.

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<v Speaker 1>And before I arrived, I had heard about how there's

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<v Speaker 1>a shortage of cars in Cuba, but I just didn't

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<v Speaker 1>understand until I got there, really how limited access to

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<v Speaker 1>a vehicle is is. In fact, in the countryside, most

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<v Speaker 1>people move around by horse and cart because there's so

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<v Speaker 1>few cars. Sophia, you getting driven around in that pink

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<v Speaker 1>Cadillac by your very own driver, Romerrow. That's a pretty

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<v Speaker 1>big luxury. Yeah, that's a treat. And it's not like

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<v Speaker 1>cars are technically banned in Cuba. It's just that they

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<v Speaker 1>are so expensive to buy that most people can't afford them.

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<v Speaker 1>One taxi driver told me those classic cars that you

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<v Speaker 1>see in all the photos driving down the Malican, they

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<v Speaker 1>can cost as much as fifty thousand U S. Dollars.

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<v Speaker 1>And remember, most people are just earning twenty dollars a month.

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<v Speaker 1>And he said that if you do manage to somehow

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<v Speaker 1>save enough cash to buy one of these cars, then

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<v Speaker 1>the authorities can often get suspicious about how you manage

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<v Speaker 1>to get so much money. And there's no such thing

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<v Speaker 1>as getting a loan for a car if you want

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<v Speaker 1>to buy one. In the airport in Mexico on our

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<v Speaker 1>way to Cuba, we saw people checking in flat screen TVs,

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<v Speaker 1>air conditioning units, and are the large home electronics. Big

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<v Speaker 1>ticket items are still prohibitively expensive for most people in Cuba.

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<v Speaker 1>So what about smartphones? Actually, interestingly a lot of young

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<v Speaker 1>people do have smartphones, but again they are still really expensive.

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<v Speaker 1>A few people told me the latest models aren't easily

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<v Speaker 1>available unless you buy them on the black market. This

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<v Speaker 1>is something I asked Omero, our taxi driver about. Now. Remember,

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<v Speaker 1>by Cuban standards, Omero is very well off. He owns

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<v Speaker 1>five classic cars in a place where most people don't

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<v Speaker 1>even have one. But still he had to depend on

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<v Speaker 1>his relatives in Miami to send him a smartphone from

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<v Speaker 1>the US. No, I my phone is and buy in Miami. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>every ELECTRONI is a spencer in Cuba. It's very spencive.

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<v Speaker 1>He's positive because my family living in Miami, Like, I'm

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<v Speaker 1>gonna buy the phone and the TV for me. You know.

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<v Speaker 1>The people is not possibly um Miami, because I know Miami.

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<v Speaker 1>No resize there. They gone to Marino how the morning

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<v Speaker 1>for goo. The made the flight and like a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of other developing economies, I assume a desktop computer is

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<v Speaker 1>completely out of the question. Yeah. I didn't see a

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<v Speaker 1>single one while I was there. And actually until now,

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<v Speaker 1>Cubans have not been able to access the Internet from

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<v Speaker 1>their homes. Interestingly, that may be about to change. I

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<v Speaker 1>spoke to one Cuba trade expert. His name is Timothy Ashby.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm the former senior Republican political appointee in the Commerce Department.

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<v Speaker 1>Myself and two administrations. Timothy told me there are pilot

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<v Speaker 1>programs underway in Havana to bring internet connections to at

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<v Speaker 1>least one neighborhood. The Cubans have just started experimenting with

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<v Speaker 1>home internet access UM in Old Havada, which is the

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<v Speaker 1>recently restored area of the five d year old General

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<v Speaker 1>and they have a pilot puggle with two thousand homes

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<v Speaker 1>that have been set up for home internet access, which

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<v Speaker 1>is a quite revolutionary in Cuba, which because home internet

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<v Speaker 1>access was prohibited until quite repas unless you were a

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<v Speaker 1>government official or a teacher or a foreuner. So that's

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<v Speaker 1>that's quadramatic. Can they do plan to Experiand he also

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<v Speaker 1>said there's a lot of interest inside the Cuban government

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<v Speaker 1>in developing the country's infrastructure in the coming years, and

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<v Speaker 1>a couple of American companies are definitely interested in helping

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<v Speaker 1>build out that infrastructure. Google is one of them, and

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<v Speaker 1>in December they reached a deal with Cuba. They're going

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<v Speaker 1>to set up service locally on the island to store

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<v Speaker 1>content like popular YouTube videos for example. At the start

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<v Speaker 1>of the show, we heard Omero talking about those frustratingly

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<v Speaker 1>slow internet connections. Well, this deal with Google should speed

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<v Speaker 1>things up. And you found the Airbnb is also growing

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<v Speaker 1>in Cuba, and wireless carriers like Verizon in eighteen he

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<v Speaker 1>are now offering roaming services for tourists visiting the island,

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<v Speaker 1>and I'm told that US carriers are looking for ways

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<v Speaker 1>to offer services not just to tourists but also to

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<v Speaker 1>local Cubans. Netflix is another US company that's technically available

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<v Speaker 1>in Cuba, but they won't really see the benefits of

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<v Speaker 1>being there until the Internet becomes more accessible to more people.

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<v Speaker 1>And this is this is an interesting thing thinking about

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<v Speaker 1>why US companies are even bothering to come here. Because

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<v Speaker 1>Cuba is a tiny economy, the revenue that they generate

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<v Speaker 1>can't really compare to the opportunity in other markets like

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<v Speaker 1>China or Greater Africa. Yeah. I wondered about this too,

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<v Speaker 1>and I suspect part of it must be related to

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<v Speaker 1>the fact that they are finally able to do business

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<v Speaker 1>in this place that's been off limits for literally decades.

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<v Speaker 1>But I discovered something else to Cuba actually trains a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of world class computer scientists and programmers. That's because

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<v Speaker 1>they have a few very respect table technical universities and

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<v Speaker 1>it's kind of a surprising detail. I think for a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of our listeners, because so far we've been talking

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<v Speaker 1>about Cuba, is this incredibly poor economy. Right, most people

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<v Speaker 1>have very little disposable income. But the government has invested

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<v Speaker 1>in good schools, good hospitals, and good universities. Sure, so

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<v Speaker 1>they have all the raw ingredients for for good talent.

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<v Speaker 1>But these people, they come out of these great educations

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<v Speaker 1>and they have nowhere to apply those skills. Right, And

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<v Speaker 1>when I spoke to Timothy, he said that for American

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<v Speaker 1>companies it may not be so much the market opportunity

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<v Speaker 1>as the engineering talent that they're chasing in Cuba. The

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<v Speaker 1>Cuban government is on board with this too. Their goal

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<v Speaker 1>is not to be another India, but to be something

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<v Speaker 1>closer to Israel, where they have highly trained innovative um

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<v Speaker 1>software developers and other types of entrepreneurs. And the entrepreneurial

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<v Speaker 1>sector has actually been encouraged in Cuba. Yeah, Okay, so

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<v Speaker 1>that's all on the pipeline. And yet right now most

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<v Speaker 1>people still need to sit on a park bench to

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<v Speaker 1>check their email. So let's walk everyone through it. How

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<v Speaker 1>do people actually connect to the internet. So first you

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<v Speaker 1>have to buy a scratch card to connect to the

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<v Speaker 1>national WiFi network. You can buy the cards at state

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<v Speaker 1>run general stores and in major hotels, so like phone

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<v Speaker 1>cards way back in the day. Yeah, no, exactly. And

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<v Speaker 1>the going rate for an hour online is about two

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<v Speaker 1>U S dollars. Now that's incredible. You know, earlier we

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<v Speaker 1>talked about people's salaries being twenty five dollars a month,

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<v Speaker 1>So an entire month's wages is equivalent to about ten

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<v Speaker 1>to twelve hours of time on the internet. Yeah, Cuba's

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<v Speaker 1>internet is one of the most expensive in the world.

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<v Speaker 1>I talked to a woman called Laurie. She works as

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<v Speaker 1>a guide in a national park in a town called Vignalis.

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<v Speaker 1>It's about three hours away from Havana. Here's how she

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<v Speaker 1>explained it. But it's not easy. It's sometimes we don't

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<v Speaker 1>have a connection and is just in the one blope

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<v Speaker 1>of the town and in some hotels we have only

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<v Speaker 1>to hold us. The early have senior too, but not

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<v Speaker 1>in all Vignal. It's not in the house. It's impossible

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<v Speaker 1>in the house, and even if we want the internet

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<v Speaker 1>in the house is really expensive and they don't want

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<v Speaker 1>people with internet because we use internet. We have acted

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<v Speaker 1>at all the information and they don't want that now.

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<v Speaker 1>When she says they, Laurie is of course talking about

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<v Speaker 1>the Cuban government. But it was almost as if Cuba's

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<v Speaker 1>method of information control was to make it so expensive

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<v Speaker 1>and so slow and in convenient to use the Internet.

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<v Speaker 1>I checked it out while I was there, and interestingly,

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<v Speaker 1>you can access Western websites like Facebook and Twitter. They're

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<v Speaker 1>not censored, so very different from a place like China.

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<v Speaker 1>Exactly here's him again. Cubans also communicate now um by

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<v Speaker 1>linked In. They are active Facebook subscribers. They also access

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<v Speaker 1>international news, and this is something that's very intriguing to

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<v Speaker 1>that they are not censored, that the government will close

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<v Speaker 1>down violently antique Castro government types of science. But I've

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<v Speaker 1>actually tested, as you may well have too, such just

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<v Speaker 1>like Google, see you and I can access news from

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<v Speaker 1>anywhere in the world. That seems there's no independent media

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<v Speaker 1>in Cuba, but there is an ability to access um

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<v Speaker 1>foreign media, which I think is a very key differentiation.

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<v Speaker 1>Did you get this sense of what people use the

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<v Speaker 1>internet for? Yeah, Well, since it's so new, people are

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<v Speaker 1>just getting used to it. They use mostly basic applications,

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<v Speaker 1>things like sending emails and video calling their relatives. Who

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<v Speaker 1>live outside Cuba. Another thing people mentioned was social networks

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<v Speaker 1>Google Facebook. Interestingly, I didn't hear anyone really talk about

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<v Speaker 1>e commerce, so that there's no Amazon there, no no

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<v Speaker 1>one recognized the name Amazon when I tried it out.

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<v Speaker 1>The only person who said they occasionally buy things online

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<v Speaker 1>was Omero, the taxi driver we mentioned before. He said

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<v Speaker 1>he uses eBay to get spare parts for his car. Okay, so,

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<v Speaker 1>just until a few years ago, it was really hard

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<v Speaker 1>for normal people to start a business. You either had

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<v Speaker 1>a government job, you served in the military, or you

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<v Speaker 1>worked the land as a farmer. There were some limited

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<v Speaker 1>opportunities to run your own business. You could maybe be

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<v Speaker 1>a hairdresser or rent a room to tourists, for example,

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<v Speaker 1>But before Raoul Castro changed the rules, you couldn't have

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<v Speaker 1>any employees unless they were related to you. And it's

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<v Speaker 1>really striking in Cuba how little industry there is. Towns

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<v Speaker 1>have no shops, literally no shops, and almost everything is

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<v Speaker 1>still run by the government, even restaurants and cinemas. But

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<v Speaker 1>it has recently become possible for Cubans to set up

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<v Speaker 1>small businesses, which usually have something to do with serving tourists.

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<v Speaker 1>So if you have a car. You might become a

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<v Speaker 1>taxi driver like a marrow, or you might make small

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<v Speaker 1>craft objects like painted pictures or jewelry out of everyday materials.

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<v Speaker 1>Here's Laurie again. You can compare our business now then

0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:32.120
<v Speaker 1>um some years ago, and now we have more opportunities

0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:35.840
<v Speaker 1>and we have more money. And it's incribll because all

0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.120
<v Speaker 1>the people are common before of the American people. So

0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:42.720
<v Speaker 1>when they came, the hotel is full and they have

0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.960
<v Speaker 1>to go at the houses with trendrom or sometimes they

0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.520
<v Speaker 1>don't like the hotel because it is um a little

0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:52.920
<v Speaker 1>bit um different in the house. They want came to

0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.560
<v Speaker 1>know the real people. They want to came to see

0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:59.720
<v Speaker 1>our life and to know about our culture. So so

0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.880
<v Speaker 1>it's Laurie said. Most towns just have one or two

0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.840
<v Speaker 1>government hotels, and as a result, there's a real shortage

0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:11.760
<v Speaker 1>of hotel rooms. Luckily, renting rooms to tourists is by

0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.920
<v Speaker 1>far the most lucrative kind of business people could run

0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.000
<v Speaker 1>in Cuba, but until now hosts have had to rely

0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.640
<v Speaker 1>on word of mouth to attract guests. They depend on

0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:25.400
<v Speaker 1>host families in other towns recommending them on to travelers,

0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.720
<v Speaker 1>or they hang signs in front of their doors. So

0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:33.000
<v Speaker 1>this is one area where the Internet is totally transforming

0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.480
<v Speaker 1>the way people do business. You know, it's really hard

0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:40.400
<v Speaker 1>to imagine how businesses could manage without being able to

0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.600
<v Speaker 1>do simple things like sending up a website. Yeah, I

0:15:43.760 --> 0:15:46.680
<v Speaker 1>was very curious about this too, and some of the

0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.840
<v Speaker 1>most interesting stories I heard came from the families that

0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:58.520
<v Speaker 1>we stayed with that She and her husband, Yovanni, have

0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:02.080
<v Speaker 1>a home in the north of Cuba. Their cottage sits

0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.400
<v Speaker 1>on a sandy spit of land poking out into the

0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:09.200
<v Speaker 1>Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by warm turquoise water and narrow

0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:12.920
<v Speaker 1>white beaches, and their home is idyllic. They have a

0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.360
<v Speaker 1>small garden in the shade of an avocado tree. They

0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:20.200
<v Speaker 1>grow fruit and salad. The chickens out back, and about

0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.920
<v Speaker 1>eighteen months ago they started renting three extra rooms. They

0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.680
<v Speaker 1>set up a website, and then about a month ago

0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:33.480
<v Speaker 1>they signed up with Airbnb. With Airbnb, it's only been

0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.280
<v Speaker 1>twenty days more or less of them, it's going very well.

0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:40.040
<v Speaker 1>They send us a lot of bookings. Basically, I'm booked

0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:43.320
<v Speaker 1>for the whole year with them. It's not just Island.

0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.880
<v Speaker 1>Everywhere we stayed our host families told us, Airbnb has

0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:53.920
<v Speaker 1>had a big impact on their business. Your friend recommended

0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:55.800
<v Speaker 1>Airbnb to me and I searched for it on the

0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.400
<v Speaker 1>internet and it looked good for growing my business. We

0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:03.560
<v Speaker 1>got our first client through them under member nine that

0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:07.200
<v Speaker 1>was great who hosted us in a little sky blue

0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:11.760
<v Speaker 1>cavania in Vignalis. Now, before Airbnb, you would never know

0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:14.359
<v Speaker 1>when a guest would come looking for a place to

0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:19.200
<v Speaker 1>stay before your friends and neighbors would give you a call,

0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:21.080
<v Speaker 1>ask if you were free or if you had guests

0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:26.000
<v Speaker 1>right now, and then sometimes people would say they're coming

0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.720
<v Speaker 1>and then not show up. On those days, hosts would

0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:34.000
<v Speaker 1>simply lose the income. And Ailem told me that knowing

0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:37.600
<v Speaker 1>her security deposit is guaranteed is one of the best

0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:42.000
<v Speaker 1>things about signing up with Airbnb. Well before, it was

0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.240
<v Speaker 1>a bit difficult. My house was not very well known.

0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:47.240
<v Speaker 1>A lot of clients would reserve, but without the security

0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.080
<v Speaker 1>that they're definitely coming and if they don't show up,

0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:52.640
<v Speaker 1>sometimes I would send away other guests and not get

0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.200
<v Speaker 1>the money from any of them. So I started only

0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.280
<v Speaker 1>to accept day of booking. Another big bonus with Airbnb

0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.159
<v Speaker 1>is that posts can take bookings far in advance on

0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.600
<v Speaker 1>the night we stayed with Alem, we saw her actually

0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.440
<v Speaker 1>take a reservation as far out as April, as she

0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.359
<v Speaker 1>says that never used to happen before. Okay, so I

0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.720
<v Speaker 1>lem not having easy access to the internet. How is

0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:19.960
<v Speaker 1>she maintaining her Airbnb account? Yeah, you're right. She doesn't

0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.680
<v Speaker 1>have any internet signal at her house and she lives

0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.520
<v Speaker 1>an hour away from the closest WiFi hotspot, which is

0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.680
<v Speaker 1>in the town, so she can't manage her own Airbnb accounts.

0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.359
<v Speaker 1>Someone actually called her that night to update her about

0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.560
<v Speaker 1>the booking, and what she told me is that usually

0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:39.000
<v Speaker 1>Airbnb will keep in touch with her by email, so

0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.080
<v Speaker 1>a couple of times a week or whenever she goes

0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.359
<v Speaker 1>into the town, she can get online and pick up

0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:48.399
<v Speaker 1>any updates that they've sent her. Here in Cuba, we

0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.120
<v Speaker 1>are not free to connect to the internet from home

0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.080
<v Speaker 1>as well. It's very difficult. I have an email account

0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.600
<v Speaker 1>and that's how I keep in touch with Airbnb. This

0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.639
<v Speaker 1>is the way I connect with Airbnb. They connect with

0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.679
<v Speaker 1>every one this way and they do everything. They upload

0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.200
<v Speaker 1>the photos of the house. When I have new photos,

0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.520
<v Speaker 1>I send them to a representative who is based in

0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.639
<v Speaker 1>Havana and he has to communicate with the guests because

0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:14.040
<v Speaker 1>I don't have access to the internet. That representative I

0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.919
<v Speaker 1>LM is talking about. Those are people working for Airbnb

0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:22.119
<v Speaker 1>and Havana. It's their job to basically manage the hosts

0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.520
<v Speaker 1>accounts for them. Yeah, and I didn't really get it

0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:28.400
<v Speaker 1>at the time, but now that I'm thinking back, when

0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.080
<v Speaker 1>I was looking for places to stay in Cuba, almost

0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.800
<v Speaker 1>every listing offered instant booking. And you know, maybe that's

0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.240
<v Speaker 1>the reason that because it's just too hard for hosts

0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:38.840
<v Speaker 1>to get back to you quickly if you try and

0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:41.680
<v Speaker 1>message them and asking questions before you make a reservation.

0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:44.720
<v Speaker 1>So what do you think we can expect from Cuba

0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:48.240
<v Speaker 1>in the next few years. I think everyone is waiting

0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:51.560
<v Speaker 1>to see US companies, I mean international companies in general

0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.800
<v Speaker 1>are all eager to get into the country. But so far,

0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:57.600
<v Speaker 1>the pace of dealmaking, at least between US companies and

0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.960
<v Speaker 1>the Cuban government has been relatively slow. Um and there's

0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:04.000
<v Speaker 1>a number of pending deals that haven't closed yet. One

0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:05.960
<v Speaker 1>thing that we can count on is that the Cuban

0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:09.520
<v Speaker 1>government is interested in expanding internet access within the country,

0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.679
<v Speaker 1>so likely the first thing we'll see is more WiFi

0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.639
<v Speaker 1>hotspots and hopefully something cheaper to something cheaper than two

0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:19.320
<v Speaker 1>dollars an hour. Yeah, well, I mean, O'Mara told me

0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:21.960
<v Speaker 1>that it used to be ten a couple of years ago,

0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.680
<v Speaker 1>ten dollars an hour, So it may come down further,

0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:33.840
<v Speaker 1>and it'll be interesting to see what happens to the

0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:37.479
<v Speaker 1>relationship that the US has with Cuba under our new

0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:40.399
<v Speaker 1>president Donald Trump. I agree, I think that's a big

0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.240
<v Speaker 1>question mark right now. But I was interested while I

0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:45.679
<v Speaker 1>was reporting out this story to hear that a lot

0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.679
<v Speaker 1>of people are actually very hopeful the Cuban government um

0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.240
<v Speaker 1>is not expecting any kind of rollback what I've heard,

0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.440
<v Speaker 1>especially from Timothy, who is still very plugged in with

0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:58.560
<v Speaker 1>policy officials in Washington. He said that there may be

0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.440
<v Speaker 1>more scrutiny of deals, there may be more enforcement of

0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.240
<v Speaker 1>existing regulations on the U S side, but he's not

0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.200
<v Speaker 1>expecting to see a rollback. We'll just have to wait

0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:17.639
<v Speaker 1>and see. And that's it for this week's episode of Decrypted.

0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:21.400
<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening. Tell us what you thought of this episode.

0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:24.600
<v Speaker 1>Send us a voice message. You can email me at

0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.760
<v Speaker 1>p G A D K A r I at Bloomberg

0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:32.200
<v Speaker 1>dot net, or write to me on Twitter. I'm at

0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.800
<v Speaker 1>Pa Gadkari and I'm at aki Ito seven. You can

0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:40.040
<v Speaker 1>subscribe to Decrypted on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts,

0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:43.080
<v Speaker 1>and leave us a rating and a review. It helps

0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:47.600
<v Speaker 1>more listeners find your show. This episode was produced by

0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:52.800
<v Speaker 1>aki Ito, Magnus Henrickson, and Liz Smith. Alec McCabe is

0:21:52.880 --> 0:22:00.719
<v Speaker 1>head of Bloomberg Podcasts. We'll see you next week as

0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.440
<v Speaker 1>Radio Rubber Last. L