In late September, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla told reporters in New York via videoconference of his government’s upcoming draft resolution at the United Nations, condemning the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

While that in itself was hardly news — the same resolution comes up year after year — what caught the attention of reporters in New York was the amazingly good visual and audio quality of the video link from Havana.

This raised speculation about the fate of a 1,000-mile fiber optic cable connecting Cuba to Venezuela. Its inauguration was announced with fanfare in February 2011, but the Castro regime never mentioned it again — even though Internet service for both locals and foreign visitors remains painstakingly slows to this day.

Back in May, Venezuela’s science and technology minister, Jorge Arreaza, told the Miami Herald that the $70 million cable was “in full operation.” He noted that it was up to the Cuban government how it would be used.

José Remón, a former official of the Cuban phone monopoly Etecsa now living in Miami, told the paper that “the cable is working, but limited to service between certain Cuban and Venezuelan state entities or strategic communications between the two countries.”

The Sep. 20 videoconference has ignited a debate on the fiberoptic cable’s functionality.
California State University professor Larry Press, who writes a blog about the Internet in Cuba, says the conference could have been conducted through satellite links that Cuba has been using with the outside world.

“They have three satellite providers: Tata, Intelsat and NewCom,” said Press. “They provide Cuba with regular, persistent, international Internet connectivity. Any Internet videoconference would go over those links, and, yes, they could support a teleconference.

“Anything a Cuban user with international connectivity does go through one of these three Etecsa links. However, the capacity of the three [satellite] links together is much less than the [Cuba-Venezuela] cable.”

Press may be technically correct about Cuba’s Internet satellite connectivity. However, this doesn’t mean the cable isn’t up and running. One functionary at the Cuban mission in New York insisted that the recent video chat was not conducted via satellite.

Manuel Cereijo, a Cuban-American academic who has lectured on electrical and computer engineering at the University of Miami, confirmed Arreaza’s and Remón’s comments about the cable. In fact, he said, it’s been operating for more than a year.

“At the early stages, there were some trouble with inland infrastructure not being installed, because some funcionários had diverted the funds for their own use,” said Cereijo.  “Currently, it is only used by military and selected members of the Cuban government.”
It’s not clear why the Castro regime would opt out of providing up-to-date Internet connections for local residents, who hunger not only for the wealth of information that Google and other web sources provide, but also for the chance to videoconference with relatives and friends overseas, via services like Skype.

Press offers a technical explanation.

“Even if the [Cuban government] wanted to allow free access to all Cubans, there is no modern domestic infrastructure to provide that — no backbone network connecting cities, no ‘middle mile’ connectivity within cities, no ‘last mile’ connectivity to homes and businesses,” he said. “I do not know what is going on with the cable, but there is no way for it to overnight make a widespread difference. That would require political will, significant foreign investment and time.”

Press added: “If they connected Etecsa tomorrow, the cable would be a strong link in a very weak chain as far as the majority of the people were concerned. It would allow them, if they wished, to open international connectivity up to more people at lower prices, but they would still be using dial-up modems, and there would be congestion and as demand increased, congestion would appear at intermediate points.”

Even if the regime wanted to keep offering web access exclusively to foreigners and those within the Cuban government, the island’s Internet backbone would still have to meet 21st-century standards.

“I would not pay for Internet access at hotels in Cuba because quite simply, the connections are poor and not worth the money,” said Tony Martínez, a New York attorney who has long advocated improved telecom links between Cuba and the United States. 

Given the role of social media in overthrowing authoritarian regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, it’s no surprise why the Cuban government would limit such access for locals.

“It makes sense that they would use it to their convenience and political survival,” said Martínez, though he said this poses a moral dilemma for the regime. “What are the values of a government that derives its power from the people, but censors information for the purposes of political control and survival?”