Undersea fiber-optic cable reaches Cuba (from Venezuela)

[rabs]

Should be in operation by July, if it is not "accidently" severed.
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Quote: Cuban Computer Science and Communications Minister Medardo Diaz said the undersea cable "opens a breach in the (economic) blockade" that the US has imposed on the island and bolsters "national sovereignty" in telecommunications"

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Havana, Feb 10, (IANS/EFE):

Cuba held a ceremony Wednesday to mark the arrival of an undersea fiber-optic cable from Venezuela - a link expected to provide a big boost to Internet speed and capacity on the island.


Official media said among those on hand for the ceremony in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba were Vice President Ramiro Valdes, the secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, Hamadou Toure, and a representative of the Venezuelan government. Toure had travelled to Cuba for a computer science fair in Havana.

The ship that brought the cable ashore, the Ile de Batz, arrived on Cuba's eastern coast Tuesday after a 19-day voyage from Venezuela. Cuban Computer Science and Communications Minister Medardo Diaz said the undersea cable "opens a breach in the (economic) blockade" that the US has imposed on the island and bolsters "national sovereignty" in telecommunications.

Wilfredo Morales, president of Telecomunicaciones Gran Caribe S.A., the Cuban-Venezuelan joint venture that owns the line, said the project has gone according to schedule and the cable should be operational in July.

The cable - which began to be laid Jan 22 in northern Venezuela - will give Cuba an alternative to its current, painfully slow satellite link. Acquired in China and France at an estimated cost of $70 million, the cable spans 1,630 km from a spot near Venezuela's La Guaira port to the eastern Cuban town of Siboney. A second segment will run 230 km from Cuba to Ocho Rios, Jamaica.

The cable, which has a 640-gigabyte capacity and a lifespan of 25 years, is expected to provide a 3,000-fold increase in Cuba's voice, data and video transmission speeds, experts say. But Cuban officials say that even after the link has been established more investment in infrastructure and networks will be needed to improve Internet and telephone service on the island.

More

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/136455/undersea-fiber-optic-cable-reaches.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Up and running by July. Wonderful news.What a change that will bring for Cuba.

We only have the examples of what the internet has wrought in our own lives!

Congratulations to both countries. This was no small task.

[CJvR]

2. Yeah...

...it is not every day you see regime willingly put a cocked gun to it's head.

[joshcryer]

3. Heh.

[social_critic]

4. They didn't put a cocked gun to their heads

Cuba uses Chinese style "Great Firewall" software. They control the webpages Cubans can see, and they also have the ability to read all email traffic. So it's not like they are really going to open up. Venezuela passed a law recently to control the Internet, and we are seeing very slow transmission speeds (I live in Caracas), so it's not like Cubans are going to enjoy watching the youtube videos of the Egyptian revolution.

[flamingdem]

5. I've used many internet services in Cuba and they don't block pages

including anti-Cuba websites and blogs.

Please give references for your claims.

[social_critic]

6. References? My relatives

My relatives tell me what they can see and can not see. Many you are using the internet services for foreigners in those fancy hotels only foreigners are allowed to use. Who knows? You are not Cuban, are you? So how would you really know?

[flamingdem]

7. Anyone can use the computers at the hotels

I've spent lots of time in Cuba over the past 15 years.
The blocked pages thing is mostly anecdotal. There are
plenty of anti-Cuban blogs to access so there is no way
that blocking can accomplish much.

I think that issue is overblown and that's why I asked
for a reference, somewhere that someone has written about
what is blocked and how.

[joshcryer]

9. I liked Yohandry's anecdotal note about the blocking of blogs...

[flamingdem]

10. If you could be bothered put a link

since otherwise you might as well be talking gobbledegook

[joshcryer]

11. Sure.

http://yohandry.wordpress.com/2008/03/26/el-potro-salvaje-que-tumbo-al-blog-de-yoani-y-la-revista-consenso/

Sorry I thought you actually read his blog.

[joshcryer]

8. No they don't, there are reports that the software they use *now* is client-side.

There was actually a blog about it where they were planning to release information as to sites within Cuba that did not have a firewall. Basically you connect to the router and it lets you access anything.

The fiber connection *will* likely have something like the "Great Firewall" as the rhetoric coming out of Cuba is that simply the internet is not and should not be freely (as in freedom) accessible (and this has been justified here as their sovereign right). But "Great Firewalls" can be easily and trivially circumvented. VPNs, Freegate, Gladder, Vidilia and php proxies.

If the restrictions are too draconian they will be circumvented.