Cuba, Google move to improve island's connectivity

Source: Associated Press


Michael Weissenstein, Associated Press
Updated 11:28 am CDT, Thursday, March 28, 2019

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba and Google signed a deal Thursday moving the island one step closer to having a state-of-the-art connection to the modern internet.

The American internet giant and the Cuban government agreed to create a seamless, cost-free connection between their two networks once Cuba is able to physically connect to a new undersea fiber-optic cable that would be laid sometime in the future.

. . .

Cuba currently has a single fiber-optic connection running under the Caribbean to Venezuela that has been unable to provide the island with sufficient capacity to support its relatively small but growing group of internet users, for reasons never disclosed by either country's socialist government.

Thursday's deal will have no immediate effect on the ease of connectivity in Cuba, and neither Cuban nor Google officials provided any estimated timeline for the island's connection to a new fiber-optic cable. That step could take years given the slow pace of Cuba's bureaucracy and the obstacles thrown up by the U.S. trade embargo on the island.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Cuba-Google-move-to-improve-island-s-connectivity-13723097.php