The fiber optic cable between Cuba and Venezuela, long and eagerly anticipated by the Cubans as a speedy new ramp on the Internet, is “fully operational”, but only between the two governments, according to experts and news.
Cubans now have the slowest and most expensive Internet access in Latin America because their connections via satellite, rather than have to go much faster and cheaper fiber optic cable.
That should put the $ 70 million ALBA-1 fiber optic cable under the Caribbean from Venezuela to Siboney Beach, near the southeastern city of Santiago de Cuba and paid for largely by left-wing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to change.
But the Cuban government has never explained why the cable is not available to people on the island, the door left open for speculation and rumors.
A corruption scandal last summer on the Cuban telecommunications monopoly ETECSA sparked numerous reports that the cable does not work, because bribes had performed poorly on the purchase of equipment. Alcatel-Lucent SA of France laid the cable.
But on Thursday, said Venezuela’s science and technology minister Jorge Arreaza reporters the cable “is completely functional. It is on the Cuban government, as it wears out … but we know that the submarine is in full operation.”
Arreaza also indicated that Venezuela is in fact using the cable that will be country has benefited from a spur that goes from Cuba to Jamaica and other fiber-optic cable can connect the United States and Europe to join.
Jose Remon, a former senior official ETECSA now lives in Miami, said Friday that confirm Arreaza remarks, what he said since late last year – that the cable was operational but not limited to Cuban and Venezuelan government units.
Cuban authorities have enabled her to connect the cable to the World Wide Web as soon as it reaches Venezuela, Venezuelan authorities have added Remon and not the cable as an Internet-enabled connection to Cuba.
“This is the confirmation by Cuba’s ally, what we have said that the cable works, but limited to certain services between Cuban and Venezuelan state institutions or strategic communication between the two countries,” said Remon El Nuevo Herald.
Venezuelan bloggers have been unconfirmed reports that Venezuela’s government sensitive information, such as voting, citizenship, and intelligence records will be kept posted in Cuba.
There is certainly no evidence that the average Cuban with any Internet connection, unlike satellites, Larry Press, Professor at California State University, said Dominguez Hills who writes the blog The Internet in Cuba.We supply Multimode LC Fiber Optic Pigtail,900um, 50/125um fiber, 0.5m/1m/1.5m/2m/3mtr length available based on your needs
Press said on Friday that data collected by Renesys, a New Hampshire firm that monitors the health of the global Internet, shows that all connections to Cuba from Miami, New York, Dallas and Sao Paulo are in Brazil go through satellite .
An official told him Renesys: added “There is no evidence of a submarine cable in use in Cuba in 2012,Atlantic’s Wall Mount Cabinet is a great Gaming Storage and Organization solution” press. This can be explained by the speed of the compounds are determined – relatively slow speeds satellite signal, while much higher speeds to signal fiber optic cable.
Press also recalled that the former Soviet Union instead of all computerized data for the entire Eastern bloc at the International Centre for Scientific and Technical Information in Moscow. The Agency’s current web page displays, Cuba remains a member.
Remon said Cuba’s restrictions on the use of the ALBA-1 fiber-optic cable, the communist government is afraid to show the effects of wider access to the Internet.
U.S. proponents of cooperation with Cuba, have argued that the U.S. embargo were the restrictions on the sale of advanced telecommunications facilities on the island responsible for the delay in Internet connectivity.