Cuba gets cable link to Venezuela

Cuba gets cable link to Venezuela

The cable is expected to be operational in July

The cable will transform communications in Cuba, which has among the
slowest internet speeds in the world.

The new connection will make download speeds 3,000 times faster - at
least for the small minority of Cubans who have internet access.

It should also make international phone calls much cheaper.

The 1,600km (1,000 mile) cable from Venezuela was financed by the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (Alba) - a left-wing
regional grouping founded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Cuban Information and Communications Minister Medardo Diaz said it
"reinforced Cuba's sovereignty" and "opened a breach" in the US economic
blockade.

The cable would "be at the service of our people, as a tool to reinforce
its development, integration and sovereignty" when it became operational
in July, he added.

Until now, Cuba has relied on internet and international telephone
connections via satellite, which is expensive and slow.

Cuba's communist government has always blamed its poor communications
links with the outside world on the decades-old US trade embargo, which
has prevented the installation of a fibre optic cable to Florida, just
144km away.

Broader access?

The arrival of the fibre-optic cable has raised enormous expectations in
Cuba, says the BBC's Fernando Ravsberg in Havana.

According to official Cuban statistics, only 3% of the population have
access to the web - the lowest figure in the western hemisphere.

Access is restricted and available only with government permission -
although since 2009 Cubans have been able to use internet cafes, mostly
in hotels, and there is a strong black market for internet connections.

Last November the official Communist Party newspaper, Granma, sought to
lower expectations.

"The underwater cable will provide higher quality communications, but
not necessarily mean a broader extension of the same," it said.

The Cuban government says there is no "political obstacle" to the
internet in Cuba.

But opposition groups - including the prominent dissident blogger Yoani
Sanchez - say the authorities have always sought to control sources of
information and free expression.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2011/02/110210_cuba_venezuela.shtml