HAVANA-A long-awaited undersea fiber-optic cable linking Cuba with the outside world arrived on the island yesterday, promising a bandwidth bonanza for a country saddled with exorbitant telephone rates and among the slowest Internet connection speeds on the planet. The cable connecting Cuba with key ally Venezuela was brought ashore in the eastern resort of Siboney in a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the two countries, the state-run Prensa Latina news agency reported.
The cable is not expected to be operational until the summer, but its arrival is a landmark for an island that often feels cut off from the outside world, 52 years after Fidel Castro's revolution turned it from decadent American playground to crumbling Soviet satellite. When finished, the cable is expected to increase Internet speed 3,000-fold and be capable of handling about 80 million simultaneous phone calls.
That's good news in a country where Web pages open at the speed of molasses oozing out of a jar. A recent report by Akamai Technologies Inc said Cuba has the second slowest Internet speed in the world, besting only the tiny Indian Ocean-island chain of Mayotte. And that's for those lucky enough to have online access. A report last year by Cuba's National Statistics Office said only 2.9 per cent of the population had used the Internet over a 12-month period, most through work or school-the lowest level of Internet penetration in the Western Hemisphere.
Deputy Information Minister Jorge Luis Perdomo told reporters at a technology conference this week that, for now at least, Cubans would continue to be able to connect solely through their jobs or through school. He said the limitations were not the result of any political concern over what increased connectivity will mean, but rather a product of the sorry infrastructure on the island and the time it will take to improve it. Still, widespread Internet activity is sure to be a wild card on an island with a state-controlled media, a closed political system and where opposition groups are often marginalised or worse. The fiber-optic cable project is being carried out by Alcatel-Lucent SA of Paris for the state telecommunications companies of Cuba and Venezuela. (AP)