Cuban communications minister Ramiro Valdes declared that the island’s government will expand Internet access to the country sometime in 2010.Valdes remarked that he anticipated broadening online access next year after the completion of a 930 mile-long fiber optics line between Cuba and Venezuela. The cable is designed to circumvent the U.S. embargo on Cuba which bars the island from using a nearby line that connects from Florida.
Despite a May 2008 reform permitting the public to purchase desktop computers, the U.N. estimates that only a scant 2% of Cubans have Internet access. Internet use is restricted to government officials and tourists that can afford it while the government has cracked down on Cuban bloggers.
Vice Minister Boris Moreno discarded the possibility of expanding online access this year. Moreno also reiterated government policy that is “to ‘favor collective access’ in such places as universities, scientific institutions and cultural centers.” Opposition on the island has decried such a policy:
Dissidents say the government's true goal is to control access to information…Image- BBC News (“Cuba's licensed internet terminals are meant only for tourists”.)
In July, the head of the US interest section in Havana, Michael Parmly, said that Washington would allow US companies to connect Cuba to their underwater cables.
"The only thing that is missing is for the Cuban government to lift its restrictions, loose its fear and begin to trust its own people," he said.
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, The Inquirer, Reuters, hispanicbusiness.com, AFP
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