2024-03-18 16:52:52
Photo: Roy Leyra | CN360
Text: Hugo León
It is no secret to anyone that in recent weeks the connection in Cuba is experiencing its worst moments of slowness and instability in months, to the point of needing “miraculous” techniques to ensure some Internet access even at intervals, such as putting the cell phone on “airplane mode” repeatedly.
According to what they stated to Cuba News 360 customer service specialists from the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA), an efficient technique is to change many times a day between 2G, 3G, 4G and airplane mode, in order to “confuse the phone” and guarantee a certain stability on mobile data.
The explanation confirms the memes that circulate on social networks, which criticize with humor and mischief the poor state of the connection in the country.
Other Telecommunications specialists consulted by this medium explained that basically the state of the network depends on its power and the overexploitation to which it is subjected, given the increase in people connecting to the Internet in the country and the services they demand when they connect. .
In 2022 alone, the number of users connecting to the Internet from Cuba grew by one million according to official data, with the consequent increase in demand for the network, they recalled.
A source close to Cuba News 360 knowledgeable on the subject, pointed out that one reason for airplane mode and network changes to work may be that putting airplane mode on disconnects the device’s wireless communications, so deactivating this mode restarts those connections.
In the case of changing the preferred network between 2G, 3G and 4G, the same source acknowledged that it works and is what many users have been doing, including him, although he cannot explain in great detail why.
However, it was considered possible that, as these networks function independently, with different synchronization and identification patterns. When “switching connection” the phone goes from one type of user queue to another, where the device tries to connect again and this restarts the service it receives.
If at that moment 3G or 4G are either more stable or if the density of network use is lower in one or the other, the connection may improve to a certain extent.
For now, whether the phone is confused or not, the population’s complaints about the quality of the connection in Cuba persist and not even the news of another submarine fiber optic cable that will reach the island makes customers believe that the situation will improve in the short or medium term.