Google announces agreement with Cuba on improving connectivity – source

By Paresh Dave and Sarah Marsh

SAN FRANCISCO / HAVANA (Reuters) – Google is planning to announce a memorandum of understanding with the Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA to explore ways to improve connectivity on the communist-managed island, Reuters said on Wednesday. person close to the question.

While relations between the United States and Cuba have recently failed, the former enemies of the Cold War seem able to agree on the need to increase Internet access in what has long been one of the least connected countries in the western world.

While President Donald Trump has tightened the US trade embargo established several decades ago in Cuba, he has not removed an exception established by his predecessor, Barack Obama, which allows telecommunications companies American to provide services in Cuba, such as setting up a fiber optic cable. .

The US technology giant Google has been working for years to expand its operations in Cuba, although the source said the deal was not a commitment by the company to build anything.

The Cuban government was scheduled to hold a press conference in Havana on Tuesday with Google, but later postponed it to Thursday.

Neither Google executives working on projects in Cuba nor the government have responded to requests for comment.

Whether for lack of money, the US embargo or concerns about the flow of information, the Internet in Cuba was largely accessible to the public only in tourist hotels until 2013.

But since then, the government has made strengthening connectivity a priority, by introducing cybercafes and outdoor Wi-Fi access points, slowly starting to connect homes to the Web and last December by introducing the Internet. 39, mobile internet.

Nevertheless, Cubans complain that the connection is slow and expensive and that coverage is uneven. The cash – strapped government has recognized the need to strengthen the infrastructure.

Google has already benefited from the thaw of the Obama era in US-Cuban relations, which have since froze once again, to set up a small pilot display center in Havana and signed an agreement in 2016, allowing Internet users to access its content more quickly.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt met with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel twice last year, first in June in Havana, and then again in June. a meeting with other technology leaders in New York in September.

(Report by Paresh Dave in San Francisco and Sarah Marsh in Havana, edited by Tom Brown)