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05-10-2017, 04:20 AM
https://www.thenews.com.pk/assets/uploads/akhbar/2017-05-10/l_203484_035142_print.gif GASPAR, Cuba: On a traffic island in a country town, young Cubans are doing what most of their compatriots can**t: surfing an online social network.
In one of the least wired countries on Earth, Gaspar, population 7,500, is one of the most connected towns of all.
Illegally, but with the grudging tolerance of the authorities, four local techies have launched "Gaspar Social" -- rural Cuba’s answer to Facebook.
"I think it’s wonderful what these lads here in Gaspar have done. It was a healthy change for a town that had rather lost its spark," says Arletty Guerra, 22, one of the locals thumbing her smartphone.
More than that, Gaspar Social’s promoters hope it will lead the rest of the communist island to greater connectivity.
Most Cubans must pay a $1.50 an hour to connect via state telecom firm Etecsa’s wifi points. Users of Gaspar Social do **t.
Though they can**t access the world wide web via Gaspar Social, they can share photos and videos with other users in the town.
It opened to the general public in October -- two months before Etecsa installed the town’s first official wifi hotspot.
"In the beginning it was a network just for playing video games," says one of its creators, municipal computer technician Osmani Montero, 23.
"Then we opened it to all the people in Gaspar and the number of users grew hugely in just a month."
Yoandi Alvarez, 30, a medical student, raised money to buy the first aerial and server for the network.
"The antenna was near my house," he recalls. "There were users at two or three o’clock in the morning sitting in the doorway to get online, covered in quilts and blankets." Some 500 of the town’s 7,500 inhabitants have started using Gaspar Social.
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In one of the least wired countries on Earth, Gaspar, population 7,500, is one of the most connected towns of all.
Illegally, but with the grudging tolerance of the authorities, four local techies have launched "Gaspar Social" -- rural Cuba’s answer to Facebook.
"I think it’s wonderful what these lads here in Gaspar have done. It was a healthy change for a town that had rather lost its spark," says Arletty Guerra, 22, one of the locals thumbing her smartphone.
More than that, Gaspar Social’s promoters hope it will lead the rest of the communist island to greater connectivity.
Most Cubans must pay a $1.50 an hour to connect via state telecom firm Etecsa’s wifi points. Users of Gaspar Social do **t.
Though they can**t access the world wide web via Gaspar Social, they can share photos and videos with other users in the town.
It opened to the general public in October -- two months before Etecsa installed the town’s first official wifi hotspot.
"In the beginning it was a network just for playing video games," says one of its creators, municipal computer technician Osmani Montero, 23.
"Then we opened it to all the people in Gaspar and the number of users grew hugely in just a month."
Yoandi Alvarez, 30, a medical student, raised money to buy the first aerial and server for the network.
"The antenna was near my house," he recalls. "There were users at two or three o’clock in the morning sitting in the doorway to get online, covered in quilts and blankets." Some 500 of the town’s 7,500 inhabitants have started using Gaspar Social.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~4/58VvVW1JTfA
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~3/58VvVW1JTfA/203484-Cuban-town-hooked-on-pirate-social-network)