Broadband cable on its way to unplugged CubaFibre-optic cable laid from Venezuela brings the promise

[Judi Lynn]

Broadband cable on its way to unplugged CubaFibre-optic cable laid from Venezuela brings the promise of speedy internet to one of the world's least connected countries
Rory Carroll in Caracas guardian.co.uk,
Sunday 23 January 2011 20.18 GMT

http://static.guim.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pixies/2011/1/23/1295813808026/Cubans-in-Havana-007.jpg

Cubans look at computers in Havana. Soon they should be able to get speedy
internet connections to go with them. Photograph: Ramon Espinosa/AP

Cuba is set to join the high-speed broadband era with an undersea fibre-optic cable laid from Venezuela, bringing the promise of speedy internet to one of the world's least connected countries.

A specialised ship sailed from Camuri beach, near the Venezuelan port of La Guaria, this weekend, trailing the cable from buoys on the start of a 1,000-mile journey across the Caribbean sea.

Venezuelan and Cuban officials hailed the project as a blow to the United States' embargo on the island. It will make Cuba's connection speed 3,000 times faster and modernise its economy.

~snip~
he 50-year-old US embargo prevented Cuba tapping into Caribbean fibre-optic cables, forcing it to rely on a slow, expensive satellite link of just 379 megabits per second.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/23/broadband-cable-unplugged-cuba