Fiber optics soon in Cuba
News from Cuba | Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Cuba will begin to use the fiber-optics cable for Internet connections in the coming months. It is a wire 1,600 kilometers long, linking Venezuela and Cuba.
The launching of this service, which replaces the slow and expensive connections to the Web via a tired satellite, will significantly increase connection speed.
The Deputy Minister of Communications and Informatics, Boris Moreno, told the site Cubadebate that in the coming months the transfer of satellite services to fiber optics will begin. This transfer will not mean a reduction in the price of service, however. First to benefit will be scientific, cultural and artistic centers, libraries, hospitals, government administration and collective points for the population.
According to Moreno, the infrastructure needed for high-speed connections from homes will require an additional investment.
The cable, which stretches from La Guaira, northern Venezuela, to Siboney Beach in eastern Cuba, meant an investment of $70 million, a cost assumed by the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples (ALBA), a model of integration led by Venezuela and Cuba.
