Second Segment of Fiber Optic Cable Connects to Cuba

Second Segment of Fiber Optic Cable Connects to Cuba

Translation posted 23 May 2013 13:00 GMT ·

Written byElaine Díaz

Translated by Marianna Breytman



The fiber optic cable, which is expected to improve Cuba's connectivity

to the Internet, is of utmost importance to the country, and every piece

of information continues to clarify the current state of this

technological infrastructure. In the past days, U.S. company Renesys

announced on its blog that during this week they "observed a second

non-satellite connection established for the Cuban state telecom, ETECSA

[Cuban State Telecommunications Company]".



In January of this year, Renesys stated that the ALBA-1 submarine cable

had begun to bring Internet traffic in the segment that connects Cuba to

Venezuela.



According to Doug Madory, a Renesys employee:



esta vez un segmento diferente del cable submarino ALBA-1 se utiliza

para conectar Cuba a la isla vecina de Jamaica. A las 15:04 UTC del 13

de mayo de 2013, se observó que ETECSA comenzó a recibir el servicio

internacional de Internet a través de Cable & Wireless Jamaica



this time a different segment from the ALBA-1 submarine cable is being

used to connect Cuba to its neighboring island, Jamaica. At 15:04 UTC on

May 13, 2013, it was observed that ETECSA began receiving international

Internet service through Cable & Wireless Jamaica



Madory also confirmed that two weeks ago, during a presentation by

LACNIC 19 [es] in Medellín, Colombia, ETECSA representatives confirmed

the initial statements from Renesys. According to the employee, "it was

a pleasure meeting some of the people involved in this historic activation."



The description of the project [es] on the Cuba-Venezuela International

Telecommunications Systems confirms that the Cuba-Jamaica segment will

be used for "the purpose of restoration." As a result, Renesys believes

the activation could "help alleviate some minor connectivity problems

recently experienced by ETECSA."



Following the Cuban State Telecommunications Company's initial

statements in January 2013 regarding the operational nature of the fiber

optic cable and the start of several tests, a group of resident users on

the island took to social networks to discuss computerization and

increased Internet access in the country.



According to Daniel Salas [es], professor at the University of Havana:



Para irnos montando en el debate sobre cómo extender Internet en Cuba,

podríamos empezar por ir teniendo claro cuál es la situación de la

infraestructura nacional de comunicaciones, qué nodos enlaza la fibra

óptica nacional, cuál es la saturación de las centrales telefónicas y

los pares de cobre, qué tipos de soluciones tecnológicas estarían

disponibles y sus costos, y no estaría de más saber un poquito de las

cuentas de ETECSA.



In order to continue participating actively in the debate on how to

extend Internet in Cuba, we could start by clarifying the current

situation of the national communications infrastructure, which nodes the

fiber optic cable links, the saturation of central operator exchanges

and copper pairs, the types of technological solutions that would be

available and their costs, and it would not hurt to know a bit about the

ETECSA accounts.



Meanwhile, Cuban professor and researcher Milena Recio considered [es]:



Según la nota de ETECSA, se derivan dos posturas de política: 1) habrá

que sacar divisas de algunos servicios para repartir gratuidad en otros.

Dice: "aumentar los recursos en divisas, destinados a pagar el tráfico

de Internet". Es decir, se mantiene el esquema gratuidad; 2) se

multiplicarán las posibilidades de acceso, aunque no "automáticamente",

pero se multiplicarán. Es decir, no solo mejorarán las actuales. Ahora

bien, preguntas posibles ¿conectividad social, implica necesariamente

gratuidad? ¿qué parte de la infraestructura interna de

telecomunicaciones se priorizará en función de qué objetivos?



According to ETECSA's announcement, there are two political positions:

1) currency will have to be taken from certain services in order to

deliver free services in others. It says: "increase foreign exchange

resources, intended to pay for internet traffic." This is to say that it

maintains the free-of-charge scheme; 2) Access possibilities will

multiply, though not "automatically," but they will multiply. This is to

say that not only will the current ones improve. Now, possible questions

– does social connectivity necessarily imply a free-of-charge service?

which part of the internal telecommunications infrastructure will be

prioritized depending on which objectives?



The Cuban telecommunications company's late statement also motivated a

number of criticisms among bloggers. Blog Fanal Cubano reflects it as

follows [es]:



El sólo hecho de divulgar cuatro días antes esta propia nota, escueta,

pero rotunda, habría despojado a ETECSA de la responsabilidad de darle

un sesgo confirmativo al hecho, y nuestra entidad, cubana ciento por

ciento, hubiese emergido como fuente portadora de una noticia de alcance

mundial por su significado, en tanto victoria de la integración regional

sobre la política de cerco económico, comercial y financiero practicada

por los Estados Unidos contra Cuba desde hace más de medio siglo.



The mere fact of divulging this very brief yet emphatic announcement

four days earlier, ETECSA would have been stripped of the responsibility

of giving it a confirmatory bias, and our entity, one hundred percent

Cuban, would had emerged as the source for news of global reach because

of its significance, as much as it would have been a victory of regional

integration over the economic, commercial and financial siege of the

United States against Cuba for over half a century.



Cuba currently has a bandwidth of 323 Mbps (megabits per second) via

satellite for the entire island. A website can take several minutes to

open and even hours to see a video.

Creative Commons License

Written by Elaine Díaz · Translated by Marianna Breytman



http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/05/23/second-segment-of-fiber-optic-cable-is-connected-to-cuba/