Work has begun on laying an underwater fibre-optic cable to link Venezuela and Cuba.<\/p>\n
It will stretch 1,600km (1,000m) and considerably improve telephone and internet services to Cuba, which currently relies on a costly and slow internet connection via satellite.<\/p>\n
The new connection is expected to increase data capacity 3,000 times.<\/p>\n
The cable, laid by French company Alcatel-Lucent, is expected to be operational in July.<\/p>\n
In a televised ceremony, divers attached the cable to the seabed to the applause of Cuban and Venezuelan officials.<\/p>\n
Cuban officials praised the cable for breaking the country’s “historic dependence [on the United States] in the sphere of telecommunications”.<\/p>\n
And Venezuelan Minister for Science and Technology Ricardo Menendez was heard shouting “Venezuela’s breaking the embargo!”.<\/p>\n
Broader access?<\/strong><\/p>\n Cuban officials blame the decades-old US trade embargo, imposed shortly after the Cuban revolution, for the slow connection and low internet take-up.<\/p>\n According to Cuban government figures, only 16% of the population have access to the web – one of the lowest internet usage rates in South America.<\/p>\n But it is not just low bandwidth and high cost which are making web access difficult for Cubans.<\/p>\n Analysts say government restrictions demanding that people using the internet obtain official permission are keeping many from using the web.<\/p>\n And in November, the official communist party newspaper Granma already dashed the hopes of those who had thought the new cable would bring the internet to more homes.<\/p>\n In an article, praising the undersea communication line, an official said it would provide higher quality communications, “but not necessarily mean a broader extension of the same”.<\/p>\n