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01/23/13 - ABC News - Cuba Gets HighSpeed Internet... Finally

Cubans now have high-speed internet, but it remains to be seen how that
will impact the average citizen in the socialist republic.

Over the past week, internet monitoring company Renesys has been keeping a
close eye on internet activity in Cuba, and [1]announced in a blog post
that a 640-gigabyte cable completed in 2011 -- two years behind schedule
and costing $70 million -- had finally been activated.

Before the activation of the new cable, Cuba's internet had relied on
satellite service and been relatively slow, largely because of
restrictions under the U.S. trade embargo.

Currently, Cubans who have access to computers and the [2]"state-run"
intranet can visit sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, although
their use is often restricted or impeded by slow connections. In addition,
the Cuban government has launched its own versions of information-sharing
sites like Facebook and Wikipedia, but Freedom House's report on Cuba's
internet access [3]describes these as having been met with "little
success."

According to Reuters, when fully operational, the new cable will provide
download speeds 3,000 times faster than what Cuba currently experiences
and will be able to handle millions of phone calls simultaneously. Still,
the change may be more helpful for government officials than for most
Cubans since internet access is limited overall.

Today, about 16 percent of Cubans are "online," although they generally
only have access to email and the intranet through work, school, or,
according to Cuban officials, via [4]government-operated computer clubs.
Additionally, only 2.9 percent report full internet access, but "analysts
say it's [5]probably more like 5 or 10 percent due to under reporting of
black-market resale of minutes."

A 2012 documentary called [6]Ojos que te miran: Entre redes (Eyes That
Look at You: Among the Networks) takes a look at the questions and
complications that arise when Cuban students are taught computer skills
from an early age, yet have, for the most part, lived in a country with
restricted, expensive, and undependable access to the internet.
[7]According to a review in HavanaTimes.org, the documentary features, for
example, a worker at one of the country's Youth Computer Clubs who is not
able to access Wikipedia on the job, as well as a young man who shares
that he pays the equivalent of $6 USD to access the internet in order to
complete his graduate project.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.renesys.com/blog/2013/01/cuban-mystery-cable-activated.shtml
2. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/15/net-us-cuba-telecommunications-idUSBRE85D14H20120615
3. http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2012/cuba
4. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/15/net-us-cuba-telecommunications-idUSBRE85D14H20120615
5. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/22/cuba-internet-cable_n_2521330.html
6. http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=85719
7. http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=85719


Original Source / Fuente Original:
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/cuba-high-speed-internet/story?id=18286118