MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fidel Castro cracks on internet users.

Cubans as of this week have growing difficulties to access to the internet following the Fidel Castro regime ban on world wide net connection from the regular phone lines system.

Only those authorized to use the internet from home such as certain government employees and doctors will be able to use the regular telephone line. The state phone company Etecsa warned it will use technical means to detect and impede access.

The government justified the decision saying "it was necessary to regulate dial-up access to internet navigation services, adopting measures that help protect against the taking of passwords, malicious acts and the fraudulent and unauthorized use of this service".

Last year the Cuban government decreed that internet could only be accessed using a more expensive telephone service charges in US dollars, not generally available to ordinary Cubans who are connected to a system paid for in non convertible local currency.

However e-net customers who do not have the dollar phone service can still access internet legally buying special cards (in US dollars) at Etecsa offices. Given the average low income of Cubans, approximately 20 US dollars per month, most residents in the island have been using computers and internet accounts borrowed or purchased in the black market.

The new decision will seriously limit Cubans access to the internet.