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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.
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.
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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.
The difference is that the Internet the Cuban government wants (no doubt censored and highly regulated like in China, Russia etc) is totally different to the internet that the old guy was trying to set up (which wouldn't have had the censorship and regulations)
I can't imagine they aren't aware of the goal of these relations. Fidel can say communism isn't dead all he wants... but the reality is, as soon as US money starts flowing in his regime is doomed.
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
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.
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