Internet in Cuba - History

History

Cuba's first connection to the Internet, a 64kbit/s link to Sprint in the United States, was established in September 1996. Since its introduction in the 1990s it has stagnated for three major reasons:

• the U.S. embargo, which delayed an undersea cable and made computers, routers, and other equipment expensive and difficult to obtain.
• lack of funding due to the poor state of the Cuban economy after the fall of the Soviet Union and the Cuban government's hostility to foreign investment; and
• the government's fear of information freedom and its unwillingness to risk political instability in order to achieve the benefits of the Internet.

According to Boris Moreno Cordoves, Deputy Minister of Informatics and Communications, the Torricelli Act (part of the United States embargo against Cuba) identified the telecommunications sector as a tool for subversion of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, and the necessary technology has been conditioned by counter-revolutionaries, but is also seen as essential for Cuba’s economic development.

The political situation in both Cuba and the United States is slowly changing as the Cuban revolution fades further into the past and leaders grow old and die. U.S. regulations were recently modified to encourage communication links with Cuba. In 2009 President Obama announced that the US would allow American companies to provide Internet service to Cuba, however, the Cuban government rejected the offer and is instead working with the Venezuelan government.