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Cuba Says the Internet Now a Priority
lpress writes Cuba first connected to the Internet in 1996 through a Sprint link funded by the US National Science Foundation. A year later the Cuban government decided to contain and control it. Now they say the Internet is a priority. If so, they need a long term plan, but they can get started with low cost interim measures. There is virtually no modern infrastructure on the island, but they could aggressively deploy satellite technology at little cost and, where phone lines could support it, install DSL equipment.
The old guy there was trying to get internet to the island and they threw him in jail. Let's start with forcing the Cuban Government to take bi-polar meds first?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
This would be a good test of the time delta between a country getting internet access and the time when they start to produce internet porn.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
...shown the utility of having a, well, selective, access to the internet. Cuba couldn't possibly resist having the technology to poke their old nemesis in just the same way. Of course, they risk our responding to them with a stern statement of disapproval, but nothing ventured nothing gained.
Cellular is pretty much the only reasonable option given the lack of infrastructure. It can be installed completely wireless, aside from power. And finally, an answer to where the old phones can go.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
It is a tiny island. The solution is 4G wireless everywhere and 4G to wifi ports as public endpoints. There will have to be fiber to the towers, but that is a whole bunch simpler if the build-out is done in a grid pattern. Since Cuba is a dictatorship, they can get permits for anything! Someone will have to build a fiber line to Cuba and where it comes from is the political nit.
A dry copper pair pushed to the limit is more than fine for browsing.
They're capable of rolling out Fiber in hellholes like Kansas City and Austin, so Cuba wouldn't be much of a challenge.
So, are all those commentators on the US-improve-relations-with-Cuba article going to rethink their "Cuba is a paradise" schtick? The countries that censor the Internet tend not to be so great.
Get busy with the Fidel version before they have the capability to retaliate - Sony, stat!
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
After several years planning and deploying, they have fiber-to-the-shore, courtesy of their sugar daddies in Venezuela. It's public access that's lacking, and perhaps the showstopper here isn't lack of computers but scaling up their national firewall.
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
I have long wished that Google, Microsoft or even (gasp) the US Government would blanket the airspace worldwide with balloons/drones/satellites connected in an internet mesh. Then airdrop a 100 million tablets and solar chargers to third-world peasants and oppressed everywhere. Plenty of fat in the US military budget to pay for it. Imagine if a Cuban or North Korean suddenly had unfettered access to the world.
This would be a great blow against the domination of the powerful. Oh, oops, nevermind.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
I have been three times to Cuba; first time (in 1999) I went to visit a friend at the Health Ministry, and they had quite a good dialup access point; back then, dialup was still the main Internet access mode where I live (Mexico). The lacking part was, of course, computer access in the population.
The last time I was there (2010) was shortly before the connection to Venezuela started operation. I was invited to give a talk at the "Universidad de Ciencias Informáticas" campus, near La Habana. There, basically every student lives on-campus (the university is in a decomissioned Soviet base). All rooms have a computer — Old one, but working. And yes, network access was quite slow. Students also had a terribly low monthly bandwidth allowance (IIRC it was in the vicinity of 300MB), and after hitting that ceiling, there was no way to get more bits for them. It was quite interesting to see how a large group of people learnt to use the Internet with Javascript off, images off!
There was no censorship I could find (using a regular student account). Of course, I didn't go testing everything, as I didn't want to leave my host disconnected — But the main issue was the limits derived from having a single satellite uplink for the whole nation. I was told the situation improved vastly after the fiber to Venezuela was laid, but I cannot comment first-hand on it.
Of course, I'd expect now a fat fiber will be laid to Florida.
I'm an old Castro and Che fan from the 1960s. . After having met and talked with many Cuban exiles of my own age who have arrived in my city over the years, I now realize that the entire Cuban revolution was bullshit Things suck there. They are always getting worse. I call bullshit on Cuban government's proposal to 'allow' internet access to its citizens. That country is run by fascist assholes. They will never all access to the internet to ordinary citizens. Only Cuban 'stasi' goon-squad assholes and their trusted weasels will be allowed to view Huff Post or Slashdot.
[citation please]
What will they become?
The next :
US/Japan (porn mega-producer.)
Russia/Ukraine (Brides)
North Korea (E1eeT h4ck3rz)
Nigeria (gimme a 4, gimme a 1, gimme a 9!)
China (Firewalled beyond belief)
What awesome stereotypes am I forgetting? :)
http://www.google.com
http://www.wikipedia.org
If only Jon Katz were alive to see this. Old-timers know there's no need to worry about infrastructure and stuff.
"When his message came, the Taliban had just fled, Northern Alliance soldiers had taken over his village, and everybody rushed to barbers to cut off their beards and to nearby holes and hiding spots to dig up their Walkmen, VCRs, TVs, CD players, and -- in Junis's case -- his ancient Commodore, one of four in the village. Cafes had popped up all over, with impromptu dances and parties everywhere."
Good times.
Things are rough in countries that don't bend over to superpowers. Embargoes and sanctions that restrict food and medications to children are just mean and spiteful. The kids that are being hurt now weren't even alive when it all started. What's the point?
There is also Call of Duty.
porn
will be to tap into and listen to everything. Be wary of what the U.S offers you.
The internet is just a massive propaganda distrubtion and popuation-monitoring system. Why would Cuba want that?
The US has blocked Cuba's linking to the submarine cables that pass right by the island, so it's more than a little hypocritical from them to now criticize. Also, satellite is not cheap, compared to cable. Third, there are already a lot--a LOT--of Cubans on line through Facebook and other means. So know-it-alls with your sarcasm stick it somewhere else.
What would anyone do if they were to build the Internet infrastructure in a place where there was no infrastructure except phone lines first installed many dozens of years ago? Install those monstrous DSL cabinets all over the place only to be replaced later with coax infrastructure because speeds were too slow? How about just jump into fiber to the home/apartment building/business office/factory? Cuba might have a faster Internet the the average in the USA, although not necessarily more private than in the USA. Oh, wait, I forgot about the NSA.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Fidel is just now realizing how many cat videos he's missed on Youtube.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
They meant to say "noT" a priority, not "now" a priority.
Internet says Cuba Whoba?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It'll be interesting to see how they choose to go. Perhaps they'll actually get something set up that is owned by the people, as their social system alleges a strong preference for.
It'd be fascinating to see how it works without big corporations in there making choices for them on a constant basis, if they can manage to avoid that.
Somehow, though, I keep coming back to the fact that no socialist or communist system has ever been seriously tried without some kind of de-facto dictatorship making the end goal impossible to reach. Equality is fine until the idiots who disagree want to be equal, too... All systems seem to have that particular fundamental problem. Equal unless different, otherwise ostracized.
My cynical side tells me palms will be greased, corporations will heavily engage, and your Cuban surfer will have a pretty typical bill to pay. Be delighted to be proven wrong, though.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
You have a blank slate. Do it right with fibre optics everywhere. Set these people right from the start. Don't cripple them by putting in tech from the 1950s or 1980s.
As I walk through the valley of death I fear no one, for I am the meanest sonova bitch in the valley!
How could a worker's paradise not have 10-gig lines to every single room of every single house and apartment?
It's not completely wireless; to get any reasonable bandwidth out to the users, you need fiber to the towers, not just T1 or radio uplinks, but that's not too hard to do. (As another poster says, the telco's run by the government, so they shouldn't have a problem getting permits, just the usual issues with new construction in old cities.)
No reason to use old phones - the newer standards are much more efficient at spectrum usage.
And there's been fiber to the island for a long time; the problem has been that the US embargoes on trade with Cuba severely limited the services the telcos could provide. To the extent that that was caused by Treasury regulations (which Obama can change for two years) rather than law (which requires the Republicans in Congress to cooperate), they can get some of that service running quickly.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
The politics that mattered weren't the ones with Chavez, it was the US pressure on anybody else. Cuba's a really convenient place to run cable, and there's some cable there, but the amount of actual service that it was carrying was very tightly restricted because of the US embargoes. The telcos would have been happy to run a lot more of it, but weren't allowed to.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Cuba has an opportunity to leap into the 21st century.
The only obstacle is their batshit crazy government. No one wants to invest anything in Cuba because it will just get stolen by the government. And the government is too poor to actually buy anything.
So there you go.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Cuba's health and education stats are above average compared with the rest of LATAM and high when compared with the rest big Caribbean islands.
Cuba's health is not much worse than the US (yeah, that's a really low bar, but that's what most Slashdotters use as reference.)
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy...
Also Cuba ranks above the US in the Happy Planet Index.
http://www.happyplanetindex.or...
Let's say you won't be happy if you're a dissident in Cuba.
You won't be happy either if you're a dissident int he US.
You may stay "free" as long as you remain inside of your Free Speech cage.
Have you looked at a clock lately? It's clearly time for your medication.
The Internet is a series of tubes...
go for fiber, it would be cool to see Cuba have better internet than most of the US.
Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
It's a place (won't even call it a nation or government) where the leader is a dictator using the military, propaganda and FEAR to control all resources. The people relegated to starve and prostitute themselves. Speak your mind and go to jail or even get murdered. The signs everywhere read.. Socialismo o muerte... Socialism or Death is about right. Criminal Human Rights Violations have been constant over the 50 years. Internet access and cell phones alone (if they can even afford them) won't be enough. The murdering fear machine has to be challenged and dismantled and that will take time. There needs to be blood and lots of it. When the masses take to the streets defying the government and military then and only then will internet and camera phones yield the return we want. Cuba needs to be without a the government or military for at least a year. The ideal is elections and a clear separation of powers. They would do well not to have a military at all for 5 years. True Free Speech and internet Camera phones are the right formula.
Cuba has sunshine, splendid beaches on the warm ocean, palm trees, music, live music, rum and cigars, strong social cohesion and loads and loads of sex (of the 3D kind, not the familiar MPEG4 variant).
Why would they need the Net, of all things? To follow another great island-nation on the way to total ruin? To turn their young generation into sopiopathic hikikomori, who never go outside, just look at their computer screens 7/24 and even if they do, they are fixated on 4G videophone screens... They are unable to do anything to a flash-and-blood female, owing to online tentacular porn anime addiction, resulting in dive-bombing demographics figures. Cuba should look at Japan and run away from the net in a state of panic.
But I must also mention that taking a review of the /. demography and their mindset, as a cross-section of mainly US-based youth is also a strong forewarn to Cuba, shouting that they better keep the Net out, with barbed wire and cannonfire if necessary. Netismo e muerte!
How can the capitalist paradise not?
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
I think it would be really ironic if Cuba ended up with better, more affordable Internet with better customer service than their "capitalist neighbor to the north".
Seek help.
Most of the adults alive now weren't even alive when it all started.
Because the capitalist paradise never promised that everyone would have everything. That is exactly the promise of communism.
They'll buy them cheap from China, just like we do. Maybe they won't buy the fanciest ones, or the ones hottest off the cutting edge of performance, but if you're making a device for internet access rather than mobility, it doesn't have to be as small or power-efficient.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks