You’ve probably noticed that the internet feels less like a community and more like a shopping mall. Feeds crawl with ads, algorithms nudge you toward outrage, and the promise of connection has turned into a machine for distraction. But in Havana, something else is happening.
On rooftops and in alleyways, ordinary Cubans have built a digital world that works without the global internet. It’s called SNET — StreetNet. And it’s not just a workaround. It’s a radical reimagining of what connectivity can be.
The real internet isn’t a global network — it’s the one you can touch.
SNET is a user-built intranet spanning thousands of homes. People string cables between buildings, trade USB drives filled with movies and music, and share files in person. The infrastructure is fragile — a storm can bring it down — but the social fabric is anything but. Because the network is local, everything on it is relevant. You don’t scroll past posts from brands you’ve never heard of; you see the neighbor’s garage sale, the local musician’s new track, the urgent message about a power outage.
This is the opposite of the internet we know. The global web is built on distance and scale; SNET is built on proximity and trust. To get a file, you walk three blocks and meet the person who has it. To share a video, you plug in a cable. The friction is physical, but the reward is social. And that social bond is exactly what the big platforms have been trying to engineer for years — and failing.
When the state controls the internet, the people build their own.
The Cuban government restricts access to the global web. But SNET didn’t start as a protest. It started as a necessity. People wanted to share music, memes, and news. They wanted to flirt, to gossip, to organize. Without a massive infrastructure investment, they did it themselves. The cables are donated, the routers are repurposed, the labor is volunteer. The result is a network that is resilient, low-cost, and deeply democratic — because anyone who can run a cable can join.
Tech evangelists love to talk about ‘decentralization.’ SNET is decentralization. It’s not a blockchain or a token. It’s a group of people who decided that the internet belongs to them, not to Comcast or the state.
Here’s the twist that makes this story unforgettable: An offline network has created more genuine online connection than any Silicon Valley product. People on SNET know each other. They trust each other. They rely on each other. The very lack of institutional internet drives a more intimate, locally relevant digital world. The cables are in the streets, but the bonds are in the heart.
I saw this firsthand in the research — conversations with users who described SNET as ‘my neighborhood’s nervous system.’ One woman told me she learned about a community cleanup through SNET. A teenager found his first job through a post on the intranet. These aren’t trivial things. They are the building blocks of real community.
The real friction in internet access isn’t cables or satellites. It’s politics and profit. SNET proves that a bottom-up intranet can serve real needs more effectively than top-down connectivity projects. The tech industry should be paying attention, because the blueprint for a healthier internet is already running on a rooftop in Havana.
SNET isn’t a relic of necessity. It’s a blueprint for the future of connectivity. The question is: will we learn from it before we build another ghost town of likes and shares?
FAQ
Q: Is SNET really a viable alternative to the global internet, or just a temporary fix?
A: For daily needs in Havana, SNET is already a viable alternative — people share news, entertainment, classifieds, and even job listings. It's not a replacement for global connectivity, but it proves that a local, trust-based network can handle many of the functions we rely on the web for, often better.
Q: What's the practical implication for someone building a community network today?
A: The key lesson is that infrastructure is secondary to social trust. SNET works because people know each other. Any community network should prioritize offline relationships and local relevance over technical elegance. Start with the social fabric, then string the cables.
Q: Isn't this just a nostalgic return to the pre-internet era? Why not just build better global internet?
A: The contrarian truth is that global internet's biggest problems — surveillance, monopolies, disinformation — are features of scale, not bugs. SNET shows that smaller, local networks can be more resilient, democratic, and human. Maybe the future isn't one big internet, but thousands of interconnected local intranets.