Cuba Plans Bandwidth Bump, But Restricts Internet

By Ryan Lord, published on February 13, 2009 at 5:40 PM
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: , , , , | Themes: The Internet
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The country of Cuba will soon have a new high speed internet pipe to play with, but a top Cuba official has confirmed that the general public will still remain restricted.

Due to the U.S. Trade Embargo, Cuba has been left to relying on satellite-based internet access.  In 2010 that will change however, with the completion of a link with Venezuela over 960 miles away.  In contract, a U.S. link exists just twenty miles away, however the embargo does not allow Cuba to connect to it. 

Despite the drastically improved connectivity and speeds in 2010, Cuba official Boris Moreno says that the country will still restrict internet use and access by the general public once the new link comes online.  Priority access will still be given to universities, companies and research centers.

Currently just 1.4 million of the 11.4 million people living in Cuba have internet access, revealing that the Cuban civilians still remain mostly "offline."

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Comments

jhansonxi 02/14/2009 12:58 PM
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Sounds like the beginnings of the "Small Firewall of Cuba" just like the "Great Firewall of China".

astrotrain1000 02/14/2009 1:21 AM
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Makes you wonder why we trade so freely with China yet still keep this embargo with Cuba

runt23 02/14/2009 2:33 AM
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We wont trade with Cuba but we will buy oil for dictators. Yay for government.

falchard 02/14/2009 5:07 AM
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We won't trade with Cuba because of a war in the late 19th century, the cuban missile crysis, the bay of pigs, and the restrictions on the US from Cuba.

tjhva 02/14/2009 5:34 AM
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19th century? wow.

macer1 02/14/2009 9:31 AM
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cuban missile crysis

the cold war is over, get over it. USA trades with russia...

Restrictions on the US from Cuba.

if your even using this as a reason please do go back to school and relearn your history.

caminante 02/14/2009 3:20 PM
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Actually, the USA has been trading with Cuba for the past 8 years or so. As long as Castro pays with cash, not credit. This is why they are so upset about it. Or ask Japan, France or Canada about it, Castro is always late with payments. After the fall of the URSS, Castro LIFTED travel restrictions from exile Cubans living in the USA to visit their relatives in Cuba, in order to bring cash to the Island. This news is prove that the only embargo in place is the one Castro is place over his people.

chaohsiangchen 02/14/2009 11:52 PM
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What's the use more bandwidth when all you can download are censored by the government?

mariushm 02/15/2009 5:06 AM
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Actually US would not lift the embargo because the sugar producers unions in US get money from government in subsidies and sell sugar for high price to companies.

If Cuba would have embargo lifted, the market in US will be flooded with cheap sugar from Cuba and they don't want that.

US makes sugar from corn, Cuba makes it from sugarcane.

bone squat 02/15/2009 8:55 AM
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Curnel_D 02/15/2009 9:04 AM
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mariushm :
Actually US would not lift the embargo because the sugar producers unions in US get money from government in subsidies and sell sugar for high price to companies. If Cuba would have embargo lifted, the market in US will be flooded with cheap sugar from Cuba and they don't want that.US makes sugar from corn, Cuba makes it from sugarcane.


This could easily be countered with an extreme sugar import tax. If it's stiff enough, it would totally remove that possiblity, while opening up cuba's most important export: Cigars!

Curnel_D 02/15/2009 9:08 AM
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Oh, and Jamaca, Bahamah's, Haiti (though I'm sure there's a quarantine from anything from Haiti), and mexico all produce cane sugar. All of them together are more than capable sugar producers. But it comes down to cost, and it costs way too much to produce sugar from cane, pass US fda restrictions, and import it into the US. And anyways, source?

San Pedro 02/15/2009 4:51 PM
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Rich Cubans in Florida who had lots of land and money taken by Castro, and who hold political sway in Florida is still one of the top reasons for the embargo. And we're not trading with Cuba, average citizens still have a hard time getting basic consumer products. The US still places very tough restrictions on citizens traveling to Cuba.

By the way, thanks to the WTO, and international agreements raising tariffs to super high levels is difficult to say the least.

It's always interesting to read what IT people think about politics.

skalagon 02/16/2009 12:01 PM
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@ Bone Squat "Bah who cares? No one lives in Cuba anyways. At least I don't know anyone that lives there. They can just sit in the jungle doing their rain dances and chucking spears and selling cocaine. That's what they're best at anyways..."

Man u dont know much about Cuba do you?? I bet you couldn't even find it on a map.

CChick 02/16/2009 12:49 PM
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jhansonxi :
Sounds like the beginnings of the "Small Firewall of Cuba" just like the "Great Firewall of China".



or maybe like the Great bullshit of America ? Guantanamo bay ? They think u're terrorist and u get locked up there for years without any rights?

Yeah, thats so freedom.

_horse 02/16/2009 2:00 PM
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Go talk politics somewhere else, people! This place is about tech news, not your opinion on talking heads.

neiroatopelcc 02/16/2009 3:51 PM
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_horse :
Go talk politics somewhere else, people! This place is about tech news, not your opinion on talking heads.


Not entirely true actually. Quite often there's news here about tech and barack, and always the news piece ends with the article writer to ask readers to leave their comments. And mostly about the political aspects rather than the technical.

Anyway, like it or not, but politics sadly is part of technology. Or rather the restricted speed at which it develops.

rtfm 02/16/2009 6:52 PM
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CChick :
or maybe like the Great bullshit of America ? Guantanamo bay ? They think u're terrorist and u get locked up there for years without any rights? Yeah, thats so freedom.



Freedom has to be balanced with protection (I'm not saying the balance is right though). Some of those people are innocent victims who have been held without trial or charge, which is a terrible crime, but some (like the English guy on hunger strike) were planning to murder innocent people and sh11t bags like that don't deserve rights and should rot there (after a FAIR & transparent trial may I add).

blackened144 02/17/2009 4:27 PM
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CChick :
or maybe like the Great bullshit of America ? Guantanamo bay ? They think u're terrorist and u get locked up there for years without any rights? Yeah, thats so freedom.


Youre right CChick. We shouldnt be just locking these people up in Guantanamo Bay. We should just be interrogating them on the field of battle and shooting them in the back of the head, just like the Geneva Convention says we should. If we dealt with unlawful combatants the way the Geneva Convention tells us we should, there would only be a handful of people in Guantanamo Bay.

CChick 02/17/2009 4:41 PM
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blackened144 :
Youre right CChick. We shouldnt be just locking these people up in Guantanamo Bay. We should just be interrogating them on the field of battle and shooting them in the back of the head, just like the Geneva Convention says we should. If we dealt with unlawful combatants the way the Geneva Convention tells us we should, there would only be a handful of people in Guantanamo Bay.



So does that mean the "Greatest nation on earth" AKA USA has the right to just lock "who the heck ever" up without a reason ? Terrorist? yeah sure. But I think the biggest terrorist is USA itself.

What US did to Iraq was pretty much the same as what Japan did to China back in WW II ---- Make some BS up(WMD vs missing solider) just to start a war.

So suck it. America.

blackened144 02/17/2009 4:54 PM
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CChick :
So does that mean the "Greatest nation on earth" AKA USA has the right to just lock "who the heck ever" up without a reason ? Terrorist? yeah sure. But I think the biggest terrorist is USA itself.What US did to Iraq was pretty much the same as what Japan did to China back in WW II ---- Make some BS up(WMD vs missing solider) just to start a war. So suck it. America.


The problem I have with your statement, is that we are not locking up people "without a reason". Please, provide proof and not just ramblings of other people like you. Also, please, tell me the difference between someone who is wrong about their being WMD's and someone who flat out lies about WMD's, then please define for me what it means to be intellectually dishonest.

blackened144 02/17/2009 5:01 PM
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CChick :
So does that mean the "Greatest nation on earth" AKA USA has the right to just lock "who the heck ever" up without a reason ? Terrorist? yeah sure. But I think the biggest terrorist is USA itself.What US did to Iraq was pretty much the same as what Japan did to China back in WW II ---- Make some BS up(WMD vs missing solider) just to start a war. So suck it. America.


Also, please point to the book that documents Japan taking over China to over throw a dictator, only to then rebuild the infrastructure and country to allow democratic elections. I have read a lot of history, but I have never found that gem.

Anonymous 02/18/2009 12:45 PM
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A lot of possibilities if the embargo that USA breaks down.Meanwhile other countries had open whatever to free the internet to the planet as Free to Air Sat TV.Shame on USA.They now the capabilities of the Caribbean.Jamaica,Haiti,Dominican Republic,Cuba and Puerto Rico which
is the oldest colonial territory of the world.Gambling,prostitution are among the facts before Castro get in power.
http://www.casahistoria.net/cubanbackground.htm#2. Cuba: introduction

grieve 02/18/2009 10:48 PM
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Chaohsiangchen :
What's the use more bandwidth when all you can download are censored by the government?


Castro wants faster porn for himself.

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