Venezuela clicks in for web-starved Cubans

Venezuela clicks in for web-starved Cubans
By Marc Frank in Havana
Published: January 19 2011 22:47 | Last updated: January 19 2011 22:47

It has been said that the only things the Cuban government can do
nothing about are the hurricanes that lash the island every year and the
inexorable march of the new economy.

Cuba is the least connected country in the hemisphere. So the prospect
of a fibre optic cable linking Cuba to the rest of the world, which will
dramatically boost internet capacity, is potentially as big a change as
Raúl Castro's new efficiency drive, which will see half a million state
employees, one in 10 of the labour force, laid off this year.
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Although officials say the link-up may not provide internet-starved
Cubans with greater access to the world wide web, the
Venezuela-sponsored link is due to reach Cuba in February and be
operational by July. In a country that currently relies on satellite
transmission, the cable will increase data capacity 3,000 times and
carry up to 10m international calls simultaneously.

"I have no doubt that, at least in the short term, this will do more to
modernise the economy and improve our efficiency than the measures we
are taking to shed excess labour and grant companies more autonomy,"
said a local Cuban economist who acts as a consultant to state-run
companies and asked that his name not to be used.

"It also opens up new possibilities for online business."

A Chinese subsidiary of French company Alcatel-Lucent is providing the
$63.4m cable. The French vessel Ile de Batz began to lay the 1,000-mile
line from Venezuela this week.

"This is very, very important in terms of connectivity, it will be a
change like night and day," says Cuban telecommunications engineer
Antonio, who has been involved in the sector since the 1980s and asked
that his surname not be used.

"Now, using videos, photos, teleconferencing and other facilities will
work, and without a doubt it will be magnificent," he added.

Magnificent for some, but not for others.

Antonio, like most Cubans, said US sanctions were largely responsible
for the dismal state of Cuban communications.

But he added that Havana was also loath to allow the free flow of
information and used the embargo as an excuse to drag its feet on
technologies that "in the end can't be stopped".

Before the 1959 revolution, Havana was renowned for its sophisticated
media industry – especially advertising and radio, with broadcasters
regularly beaming programmes across the region.

Since then, the country has all but missed the information revolution,
and young Cubans often cite a sense of isolation as reason to leave the
island.

Bookshops carry few foreign publications. Computing skills are taught at
school, but personal computers are rare. Meanwhile, those who do have
online access are faced with slow and unstable satellite connections
that can make opening an e-mail a hair-pulling experience.

According to government figures, only 1.8m Cubans, 16 per cent of the
population, have web access – and most of that is to an "intranet".

Access is restricted and available only with permission from a
government that claims the virtual world is a weapon of US cultural
subversion.

Few, therefore, expect Cuba's undersea link to lead to a democratic
explosion of social media.

When a ban on mobile phones was lifted in 2008, for example, only a few
thousand were in use on the island – mostly by foreigners and government
officials. Now, an estimated 800,000 mobile phones are in Cubans' hands
– but high call costs prevent them being used much.

"The underwater cable will provide higher quality communications, but
not necessarily mean a broader extension of the same," the Communist
party daily, Granma, warned last November, seeking to lower expectations.

Priority will also go to those already with access, Granma added. That
means broadband will become available to government, state and foreign
companies; tourists; some Cuban professionals; and those who buy time
online at hotels or have black market passwords.

The cable, which contains less than 10 per cent US product, thereby
meeting a Washington embargo, is owned by Telecomunicaciones Gran
­Caribe, a Cuban-Venezuelan state venture.

London-listed Cable & Wireless Communications last year agreed with TGC
to build another cable linking Cuba to Jamaica.

The Venezuelan link will arrive as Cuba is part of the way through
economic reforms that aim to rationalise the inefficient state sector
and will lay off 1.3m workers over the next three years.

They are expected to find jobs in a newly liberalised private sector.

Additional reporting by John Paul Rathbone in ­London

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