Is Google closer to improving Internet access in Cuba?
Google and Cuba’s ETECSA telecommunications company have signed a memorandum of understanding to “start negotiations toward a service agreement for the exchange of internet traffic,” known as “peering.” Many people on the island have been asking what the agreement means for Cubans who connect to the internet near parks, and more recently on their cell phones.
In the short run, the announcement last week did not change much. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is not a legal contract but a letter of intent in which the parties involved express their interest in negotiating certain accords. And the official announcement on the MOU as well as ETECSA comments on Twitter suggest it will take time to get there.
“This intention to work contained in the Memorandum of Understanding will be implemented when the technical conditions allow it,” the governmentowned ETECSA posted on Twitter.
At the same time, the signing of the MOU is significant because it shows for the first time the Cuban government’s readiness to discuss, under a commercial framework, a connection to a submarine cable, a source familiar with the matter told the Miami Herald.
Google’s Web pages describe “peering” as the “direct interconnection between Google’s’ network and another network to support the exchange of traffic.” A direct connection between Google and ETECSA would allow Cuban users faster navigation of Google content at lower prices. To do that, ETECSA must be connected to an internet exchange point, private or public, where Google is also present.
During the signing of the MOU, Brett Perlmutter, director of Google Cuba, said that a team made up of engineers from both companies would investigate “ways to implement the direct connection.”
Larry Press, emeritus professor at California State University and author of a blog on Cuba’s internet facilities, said ETECSA would not necessarily have to make the connection through a Google submarine cable, “but I believe it would have to be over a cable that reached an exchange point where Google had a presence.” The interconnection points closest to Cuba are in South Florida, Mexico and Colombia.
The island is surrounded by submarine cables but its only connection is ALBA1 to Venezuela. It also has two satellite connections, making for slow and expensive access. Having a second cable would improve connection speeds and provide backups, and “would be would be a bigger deal,” Press added.
Google has long been trying to reach an agreement with the Cuban government to improve the island’s access and connectivity to the internet. El Nuevo Herald reported in 2015 that Cuban officials had rejected an initial Google proposal to expand access. In December 2016, the company reached a more limited agreement to store Google content in their own servers in Cuba.
After the selection of Miguel Díaz-Canel as president of Cuba in April 2018,