Cuba responds to Google CEO's call for open Internet

Cuba responds to Google CEO's call for open Internet

Published July 02, 2014 EFE



The U.S. economic embargo prevents Cubans from accessing many Google

services, Communist Party daily Granma said Wednesday, reacting to

comments by the search giant's chief during a recent visit to the island



CEO Eric Schmidt and three other Google executives traveled to Cuba last

week "to promote the virtues of a free and open Internet," dissident

blogger Yoani Sanchez said in a post on her site, 14ymedio.



Cuba is "one of the few countries in the world that cannot access a good

part of the services" offered by Google because the California-based

company is bound by the "unjust laws" of the U.S. economic embargo,

Granma said.



Neither Android apps nor platforms such as Google Analytics are

available to Internet users in Cuba, the newspaper said.



Granma noted that Schmidt criticized the U.S. embargo in comments online

after his visit to Cuba.



Very few Cubans have Web access from their homes and the only option for

most people is going to a government-run Internet cafe or to a hotel

serving tourists.



Connection charges are steep for a country where the average monthly

wage is $20.



While Cuba's Internet links improved substantially with the arrival in

2011 of an underwater fiber-optic cable connecting the island with

Venezuela, the government says it will take years to upgrade

telecommunications infrastructure to the point where widespread home Web

access will be possible. EFE



Source: Cuba responds to Google CEO's call for open Internet | Fox News

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