A new undersea fiber-optic cable being laid between Cuba and Venezuela will help provide high-speed Internet access to Cuban citizens by 2010.
Earlier this week, Wikileaks published documents that were signed in 2006 by officials in Cuba and Venezuela describing plans for the new undersea cable that will connect the two countries.
The United States economic embargo against the island nation has forced the communist country to rely on slow and expensive satellite links for Internet connectivity, according to the Wikileaks article. Even though it would cost less and be more efficient to lay a new cable between Cuba and the U.S., which are only 120 kilometers apart, Cuba is working with Venezuela to lay a 1,500-kilometer cable to get high-speed Internet connectivity.
The proposed cable, which is being deployed by CVG Telecom (Corporacion Venezolana de Guyana) and ETC (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba), will also provide high-speed Internet access to Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad.
According to the Wikileaks article, the new undersea cable is being built as a strategic partnership between Cuba and Venezuela to encourage an interchange between the two governments; foster science, cultural and social development; and increase economic relationships among Cuba, its South American neighbors, and the rest of the world.
Cuba has traditionally kept a tight lid on Internet access in the country. In 2003, the government cracked down on ordinary Cuban citizens, who were accessing the Internet over the government's painfully slow phone network.
But recently since Raul Castro has taken power from his brother Fidel Castro, the government has loosened many restrictions on average citizens. In March, a ban prohibiting ordinary citizens from owning cell phones was lifted. And in May, the Associated Press reported that Cubans are now allowed to buy desktop PCs.
The largest phone company in the U.S. AT&T and Japan's NTT said Tuesday that they joined an international consortium to build a new undersea network underneath the Pacific Ocean.
As more businesses expand internationally, phone companies such as AT&T are trying to diversify their networks to keep up with growing demand. AT&T said it was joining the effort to build the new Trans-Pacific Express network to help stabilize the Internet and its voice services.
AT&T and NTT are the latest members of a consortium formed 15 months ago by Verizon and a handful of Asian carriers including, China Telecom, China Netcom, China Unicom, Korea Telecom and Chungwa Telecom in Taiwan.
The groups is well on its way to getting the network up and running. A China-U.S. route is scheduled to be completed by August 2008 before the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China begin, according to Verizon. And the Japan-China route will be completed in March 2009.
As traffic on the Internet grows and becomes more global, more capacity and redundant routes are needed throughout the world. Just recently, Internet service was disrupted throughout parts of the Middle East and South Asia after three undersea cables were cut. The Trans-Pacific Express was started in late 2006, after an earthquake in Asia disrupted Internet service around the region and highlighted the need for a more stable network.
Telecommunications providers and other big technology companies, such as Google, have been stepping up to the plate to build more international capacity. For example, AT&T is also committed to helping build a separate undersea cable system called the Asia-America Gateway that connects Southeast Asia with North America in addition to joining the Tran-Pacific Express. And in February, Google announced that it would help build an undersea cable to link North America with Asia. The consortium dubbed "Unity," is comprised of Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI, Pacnet, and Singapore Telecommunications.
The existing bandwidth between Asia and North America is crowded. Following FCC approval of a U.S.-China link last month, Google and five other companies have announced a Japan-U.S. link to be completed in early 2010.
The $300 million fiber-optic cable will stretch approximately 10,000 km (6,214 miles) under the Pacific. "Google's partners in the consortium, dubbed Unity, comprises Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI, Pacnet, and Singapore Telecommunications," Yahoo News reported.
Internet users in East Asia are familiar with sometimes sluggish speeds on transpacific transmissions. In my experience, connections are for some reason faster in Beijing than in Shanghai, but everywhere I've gone in China there's been some lag. (Speeds in Tokyo were very fast when I was there in late 2004 and 2005.)
The previously announced cable, dubbed the Trans-Pacific Express, is scheduled to be partially operational before the Beijing Olympics begin on August 8. It will be the first direct connection between the United States and China.
[h/t: Kaiser]
Cuts in three undersea cables, which knocked out data services to parts of the Middle East and Asia last week, continue to spark conversation in the blogosphere.
... Read more- prev
- 1
- next
