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Cuba Says the Internet Now a Priority

Posted by samzenpus on from the lots-of-farmville-to-catch-up-on dept.

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.

9 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. So release the old fart they have in prison... by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:So release the old fart they have in prison... by jonwil · · Score: 4, Informative

      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)

    2. Re:So release the old fart they have in prison... by TheBlueCrab · · Score: 4, Informative

      They already did release him. That's a big part of the recent thawing of relations between the US and Cuba...

    3. Re:So release the old fart they have in prison... by davydagger · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Was he one of the 53 "political prisoners" released from jail right after the US opened their embassy? Do you even know his name?

      Let's start with forcing the Cuban Government to take bi-polar meds first?

      No, its a change of policy. We screamed for years about trying to get the Cuban government to change its policy to a more social libertarian one, and they finally start making moves in the direction, and we call them crazy. No sir. This is a step in the right direction. No need for hostilities.

  2. Cuban girls gone wild? by Kenja · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

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    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  3. Satellite not needed by arielCo · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

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    This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
  4. Uncensored Access for All by Tokolosh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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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    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
  5. The access is not as dire as you would imagi by gwolf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:The access is not as dire as you would imagi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      I agree. I went to Cuba in 2009 and in Havana I went numerous times to an internet 'cafe' in the library near Parque Central. It wasn't the fastest thing in the world but there were around 20 machines in there and I didn't have any issues (although they all seemed to run their own operating system or front end or something). I saw internet cafes in Santa Clara and Trinidad too, and when I returned to Havana I stayed in a Casa Particulare just off Prado and the guy had his own computer with internet access.
      In the cafes I even went onto the CIA, FBI and White House websites as well as looking up anti-communist blogs, all with no problems.

      But yes, it's not quite up there yet but it does exist and the Cubans want it.