{"id":37863,"date":"2019-03-29T00:22:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T00:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37863"},"modified":"2019-03-29T00:22:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T00:22:43","slug":"google-signs-deal-with-cuba-to-boost-internet-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37863","title":{"rendered":"Google signs deal with Cuba to boost internet services"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US tech giant Google on Thursday signed a deal with Cuban operator ETECSA to explore ways of boosting internet service on the island, despite diplomatic tensions between Washington and Havana.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding in Havana aimed at speeding up connectivity to help bring communications on the island into the 21st century, a key policy of President Miguel Diaz-Canel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cuba’s internet provider<\/a> is currently dependent on a submarine fiber-optic cable link to Venezuela, but service is often overloaded and slow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Engineers from the two companies will now work together toward achieving a faster, direct internet connection. The island would benefit from connecting to submarine cables between the US and Latin America.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We are creating a working group which is comprised of engineers from Google and ETECSA who would work together to analyse ways to implement the direct internet connection,” said Google’s chief in Cuba<\/a>, Brett Perlmutter.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

ETECSA vice president of investments Luis Adolfo Iglesias told reporters the companies would work towards better connectivity “when technical conditions allow.”<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Mobile internet has been available on the island since December and nearly two million of ETECSA’s five million-plus customers have already subscribed to the 3G service.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For most Cubans however, internet access is still only available in internet cafes or outdoor wifi hotspots.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt met with Diaz-Canel last year to discuss improving Cuba’s connectivity.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Relations between Havana and Washington have cooled under US President Donald Trump after a diplomatic thaw under his predecessor Barack Obama briefly raised hopes of a lifting of a trade embargo in place since 1962.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump has instead blasted Cuba as part of a “Troika of Tyranny” along with the leftist governments in Venezuela and Bolivia, over its support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has worked to tighten the six-decade embargo, threatening to extend it to apply to foreign companies trading with Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US tech giant Google on Thursday signed a deal with Cuban operator ETECSA to explore ways of boosting internet service on the island, despite diplomatic tensions between Washington and Havana.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 The companies signed a memorandum of understanding in Havana aimed at speeding up connectivity to help bring communications on the island into the 21st…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":37864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}