The Cubans are now able to use the first free, open-access Wi-Fi on the island, which operates thanks to one of Cuba’s most famous artists.

Free Wi-Fi is now available at a modest cultural center in Havana, provided by the internationally renowned Cuban artist Kcho. The most important part here is that this move was approved by the state-owned telecommunications utility.

Although the speed is currently quite slow, particularly when the center gets crowded, it still works. This is very important for a country with 5% of the population having unrestricted access to the worldwide web. Of course, the center became very popular for people who wanted to browse international news websites, chat with friends and family overseas and visit social networks.

Apparently, the loosening of the diplomatic and trade freeze between the United States and Cuba may bring American tech giants like Google and Apple into the local market. It is known that Cuba has a high-speed fiber-optic cable under the sea from Venezuela, but the Castro regime has only permitted very few to use the Internet. Estimations that 25% of residents have access to the Internet (which is still very low) actually refer to Cubans using a restricted domestic intranet.

Now Kcho, who has close ties to the country’s government, has offered everyone access to his own personal Internet connection, saying that the Cuban Ministry of Culture approved this move. Kcho explained that he simply wanted to encourage people to familiarize themselves with the worldwide web.

According to researches, Cuba has a very low connectivity rate, while dial-up accounts are closely restricted and at-home broadband are extremely rare: this is no surprise, because in a country with the average salary $20 per month only few can spend hundreds of dollars a month on broadband. For example, Kcho has to pay about $900 per month to provide his free Wi-Fi.

However, over the last couple years, Cuban authorities have opened many Internet salons providing service for $4.50 per hour at a very slow speed. As for the first public Wi-Fi, its signal strength gets diluted due to dozens of users at any given time. Anyway, if you are on the island and want to try it, you’ll need a password: “Here, nobody surrenders”.