People face electrical and digital outages
By Yenys Laura Prieto (El Toque)
HAVANA TIMES — Neither the landline nor mobile data works. Xiomara remains cut off from communication for much of the day. “We don’t have transportation to go see our relatives, and now we can’t even find out how they are,” she complained from Villa Clara. Her experience is similar to that of millions of Cubans suffering a double blackout.
As the energy crisis worsens, telecommunications have also become limited on the island. Complaints from residents and reports from local authorities reveal that connectivity is being rationed in time slots by the Cuban Telecommunications Company, Etecsa.
“I’m writing this as a customer affected by the only telecommunications company in Cuba, Etecsa. It is very necessary for this company to change its energy matrix so that service to its customers is not interrupted,” said user Lazaro Jose Beltran at the beginning of March. He also added: “After the price hike… it is inconceivable that once the electricity goes out, all (of my city) of Remedios is left without communication.”
Fuel shortages are compounded by problems with the company’s infrastructure. On March 2, 2026, the breakdown of a generator at the telephone plant in Cárdenas caused an interruption of service in that locality. Four days later, a note from the state newspaper Girón announced the restoration of service in a “partial” manner.
Gustavo Montesinos Reyes, director of Etecsa in Matanzas, explained that in the absence of an immediate solution, the only alternative was to use the battery bank, which, because it has limited duration, quickly ran out. “From that point, options were sought, including moving a generator from another institution with authorization from the provincial government to provide a provisional solution in Cardenas until the damaged one is repaired,” Montesinos said.
The official said that the telecommunications problem also affected Perico, Colón, Los Arabos, and Calimete. The note specified that to mitigate future interruptions, “an operating scheme for the generators in the municipalities” had been established, conditioned on the availability of fuel. According to Montesinos, the equipment will operate six hours a day in specific periods: from eight to ten in the morning, from one to three in the afternoon, and from seven to nine at night.
Similarly, in Fomento, in the province of Sancti Spíritus, connectivity is concentrated in three operating blocks a day, forcing people to plan their communications and limiting access to real-time information. Likewise, in Ranchuelo, Villa Clara, the Municipal Administration Council reported “temporary adjustments to connection schedules.”
In February 2026, Etecsa’s general director in Villa Clara, Roberto Perez Morales, acknowledged that mobile radio bases, wifi zones, and landline telephones are affected by the blackouts. The official emphasized that the province does not have the necessary fuel for the back up generators. He also noted that most of the backup batteries have already collapsed, and those that still function cannot withstand so many hours without electricity. The bad news does not end there. “Etecsa’s investments in 2026 will be minimal,” he told the CMHW radio station.
In Viñales, province of Pinar del Río, digital outages extend through the night and part of the afternoon; meanwhile, in Cruces, Cienfuegos, users report interruptions in telephone service and mobile data for several consecutive hours.
A publication from the Municipal Assembly of People’s Power in Pinar del Río mentions the installation of solar panels in telephone cabinets to guarantee the functioning of landline service and Nauta Hogar internet.
However, several users described Etecsa’s management in the territory as terrible. “In the Capo neighborhood the power hasn’t even fully gone out and we’re already cut off from communication,” warned Mariolis Blanco. María Lugo from Pinar del Río stated that in Guane there is only connection and landline service when there is electricity (less than three hours a day).
“In the Diez de Octubre neighborhood, a citizen donated four panels for the cabinet in that area, of which only three have been installed, but of the batteries that Etecsa should provide—nothing yet…,” warned one user in the state entity’s post. “We are paying dearly for the worst quality service that can exist,” she concluded.
On December 15, 2025, Etecsa’s commercial vice president, Lidia Esther Hidalgo, reported that more than a third of the customers associated with Nauta Hogar do not use all the hours they have contracted. With blackouts as the backdrop—fuel shortages and the deterioration of generators—the home internet connection ultimately depends on electricity.
In that context, a question is repeated on social media: What has the Cuban regime done with the money collected after the “price hike” that was supposedly meant to improve Etecsa’s infrastructure?
First published in Spanish by El Toque and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
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