The Telecommunications Ball Is Now In Cuba's Court

lpress writes: The FCC has dropped Cuba from its exclusion list (PDF), so there are now no restrictions on U.S. telecom company dealings with ETECSA, the Cuban government telecommunication monopoly, or any other Cuban organization. Last week the U.S. sent its second high-level telecommunication delegation to Cuba. The delegates were FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and other government officials plus representatives of Cisco, Comcast, and Ericsson. Some of the news: there are at least 6 proposals for an undersea cable between Havana and Florida; Cisco has proposed a Network Academy at Cuba's leading computer science university (Chinese infrastructure dominates today); 4G mobile connectivity was discussed and Google was conspicuously absent. The time for Cuba to act is now — while President Obama is still in office.

A pair of great walls!

[blueshift_1]

I guess trump will build a Great Physical Wall on the boarder of Mexico and a Great Firewall on the boarder of Cuba. Who knew he could make the US look so much like China.

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[avandesande]

You have never heard of the Boarder of Cuba? There are plenty of makework jobs there.

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[cayenne8]

I guess trump will build a Great Physical Wall on the boarder of Mexico and a Great Firewall on the boarder of Cuba. Who knew he could make the US look so much like China.

I"m not great Trump fan, but as to this point, I'd not heard him say anything against the opening up of the US and easing of restrictions to Cuba.

Re:Here we go again ...

[radiumsoup]

So, US companies are already looking to carve up Cuba for their own interests, and what happens to the Cuban people be damned.

That's not how Capitalism works.

Hey, I know, stop meddling and let them decide what the hell they want.

That *is* how Capitalism works.

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[gstoddart]

That's not how Capitalism works.

Capitalism works however the assholes with the most money decide it works.

It's not some law of nature, and it never has been.

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[radiumsoup]

Don't conflate Cronyism with Capitalism...Cronyism can (and does) exist in virtually all feasible economic models. You are, indirectly but fundamentally, describing Capitalism as the solution to Cronyism, but calling them the same thing. They are not.

Re:Here we go again ...

[Anonymous Coward]

All in theory yes. In reality not even close, the statement from the GP is so much more accurate

So, US companies are already looking to carve up Cuba for their own interests, and what happens to the Cuban people be damned.

The consumer gets very little power in making decisions on their own. The power really lies with the companies. Chemicals put into our food, clothes, furniture, packaging, etc all put there without our consent or knowledge and absolutely no testing done on any of them other than, well it didn't kill someone on contact, must be ok.

Flint, MI water supply. Consumers had zero say in where their water came from or how it was treated.

Depending on where you live, you get little to no say in your electricity coming from green, renewable resources or from coal.

Again, depending on where you live, you have little to no choice in telecom/internet providers. Which, btw, is the vast majority of the land.

Consumer purchasing power only comes down to a few end user items and brands. But for the actual companies running the world, we have no choice at all.

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[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

One should look at the results. Oh, cheap products cramming shelves in the US.

Oh look, youngsters lining up to put on Coke T shirts and get real jobs and smart phones.

The bizarro world antics of some posters reminds me of the SNL Deiter skit with Mike Meyers and Woody Harrelson, who played a formerly affected art snob like Deiter, but from East Germany, now running around after the Berlin Wall fell with a beer chugging hat on and beer tubes in his mouth. WHOOOHOOO!!! WHOOOHOOO!

Some of you are just so up

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[rtb61]

The whole idea is in and of itself crazy. Cuba should buy stuff made in China from the US because, 'er' 'um', they will be made to suffer if they do not. Reality is Cuba wants US sanctions to end because it affects Cuba's trade with other countries. Sure they'll be polite and buy some stuff from the US and allow US tourists in but they would be stupid to allow the US government to take total control over their communications infrastructure. Main goal, to be able to completely silence the country, should th

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[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

Buying stuff from the US is, mostly, STILL buying stuff from China...just with a giant markup for the middle men.

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[khallow]

First sign of real change withdrawal from Guantanamo Bay, instead of current planning for regime change.

No, planning for regime change is the safe bet. The Castros will be gone shortly. Raul Castro plans on retiring by 2018 and might have an unplanned retirement before that. There will be a lot of changes when that happens.

Second, Cuba's business model as a client state for the USSR and China is long obsolete. They need to change radically. I believe that will include regime change as part of the process.

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[rtb61]

When US plans for regime change, first is it political campaign donations via NGOs and from there it escalates to bombs and mass murder. Nope, America should fuck off and let the Cubans decide, no more, fucked up regime changes.

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[khallow]

Please, stop being an idiot. For example, it was the state of Michigan which had interfered with the affairs of Flint, not a business. And you can always buy your own power generators, if you want green or coal power. And the US's perplexing maze of regulation has done much to restrict your choice of telecom/internet provider. For example, why haven't the supposedly superior cell phone networks of Europe or Japan been extended to the US? It's a big market with lots of money.

Consumer purchasing power only comes down to a few end user items and brands. But for the actual companies running the world, we have no choice at all.

Which if you think about it, is a

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[cat_jesus]

When you say "interfered with the affairs of Flint" you probably should say, "set aside democracy in Flint and installed a city dictator who reports to the Governor."

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[khallow]

When you say "interfered with the affairs of Flint" you probably should say, "set aside democracy in Flint and installed a city dictator who reports to the Governor."

Yes, I could say that though that would gloss over the legal restraints on said "city dictator" or the existence of the democratically elected city council.

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[DaHat]

You can't go from 6 decades of isolation to thinking US style Capitalism isn't going to fuck up the place if you try to do it overnight.

Which is why US style capitalism won't be happening down there anytime soon, the state was and is in charge of any such businesses and the price of doing business there will be greasing the palms of the leaders.

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[avandesande]

I think they will have Mc Culture sooner than you think.

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[oh_my_080980980]

Ugly American truly applies. They have a lot more entrepreneurs than you think.

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[oh_my_080980980]

What world do you live in? Non US companies have been doing business with Cuba for decades. US is late to the party.

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[cat_jesus]

Just because Americans couldn't go to Cuba, it doesn't mean they were isolated. Everyone else could go there but Americans. And you could actually go to Cuba if you went through Canada or Mexico. The Cubans were pretty nice about not stamping Americans' passports so you wouldn't get in trouble when you returned to the assholes at our border.

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[operagost]

That's funny, because all the members of the Castro family like to whine incessantly about how the US embargo was oppressing them. They have the rest of the world!

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[Anonymous Coward]

A company that does business with Cuba cannot do business with the US. A ship cannot dock in a US port before 6 months have passed since it docked in a Cuban port. It's not that simple.

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[KGIII]

Yeah, you just put a piece of paper in there and they stamp that. I've been to Cuba a couple of times. I'm a bit fond of the place. I'd actually pondered seeing if I could retire there and then I thought about it some more and realized that they'd not want me and that I'd not actually be happy living there. However, it's a great place to visit for a little while and the people are very awesome.

I'm reasonably fluent in Spanish so I don't need a guided tour or anything. I've enjoyed myself a great deal both t

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[operagost]

The lease of Guatanamo Bay really has nothing to do with the current process of lifting sanctions. The Gitmo issue is about human rights IRL enemy combatants, and I imagine the average Jose in Cuba is a bit more concerned about changes that affect him directly.

Re:Here we go again ...

[Strider-]

You can't go from 6 decades of isolation to thinking US style Capitalism isn't going to fuck up the place if you try to do it overnight.

Uhmm, Cuba was only isolated by the United States for the last 6 decades. Other countries have been doing business with them for a very long time.

Back in 2006 I was sent to Guantanamo Bay for a week-long contract. As I was walking into the Navy Exchange to grab some beer, my blackberry rang, I picked it up and answered, and everyone around me looked at me like I was from Mars. It dawned on me at that point that I probably had the only working cell phone on base, since as a Canadian (with a Canadian service contract), my phone had no trouble roaming onto the Cuban cell network.

Yeah, it was only GPRS, but for text email on a Blackberry it was still better than two rocks to bang together.

Comcast huh?

[mentil]

plus representatives of Cisco, Comcast [...]
there are at least 6 proposals for an undersea cable between Havana and Florida

The downside is that the undersea cable will have a 3Mbps uplink and cap the island nation at 250GB/month.
It's ok, Republicans don't think they'd need more than that. [slashdot.org]

The Comcast Missile Crisis

[Nidi62]

My concern is that if we send Comcast over to Cuba they might see it as a threat or declaration of war and ask Russia to station nukes on Cuba again. And I wouldn't blame them. I think giving them Comcast defeats the whole purpose of trying to thaw relations with them.

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[Sir_Eptishous]

I think Comcast is more like the Zika Virus; the government of Cuba will warn its citizens against downloading anything for the next two years...

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[Sir_Eptishous]

And good luck to Cuba if they want to get out of their contract with Comcast!

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[jpfulton]

Perhaps Comcast will use their India support staff to start a new Cold War. As one sage said, "sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

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[TWX]

Uh, I think that's the point of these meetings, to allow for service providers to now establish their own links with Cuba. Competition should dramatically reduce the cost. The nearest large mainland city is Miami, and being able to tie into the United States' network there, as opposed to having to go through Jamaica or Haiti or the Cayman Islands or through rural Mexico should have quite the impact on cost.

So now can I get my dental work done in Cuba?

[nbauman]

I can't afford American health care any more.

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[RenderSeven]

Actually, now that you mention it, health tourism would be a phenomenal growth industry for Cuba. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

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[peragrin]

I was reading a report the other day that texans are regularly traveling to mexico for dental work, as it is 20-25% the cost of going to an american dentist.

Cuba has good doctors.

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[KGIII]

Hmm... That's sort of true. Cuba has fine doctors for what they are. What they lack is some more modern training, imaging equipment, surgical equipment, and things of that nature. They're probably about twenty years behind but fine for being twenty years behind. How do I know? Well, I've done more than watch Moore's documentary (which was a bit misleading). I've actually been to Cuba and you can walk in and visit a health clinic or hospital. It's not like you're banned from walking in to them.

While I am not

Cuba does not care as they would

[indi0144]

Why, because they have Venezuela as a fallback for all its communications and while Venezuela is very close to get in the club of failed countries, they still can provide the little connectivity that Cuba is interested to provide to its citizens, properly filtered and controlled as they want. You would say that is Cubans what run Venezuela now, because I'm certain that the bus driver they have now as president can't fuck so throughly a country like he has done by himself.

Cubans can take a look at Puerto Rico and say DO NOT WANT and nobody would blame them really. Sometimes is better to don't know better.

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[indi0144]

You're right and it's an issue of America to always underestimate the agendas of it's "allies" that said, I bet the issues revolves more about the Castro's hubris, he has said it, as long as he's alive the final transition to democracy can't take place he just allowed the prep work to be started when he realized that communism is a mental wank and Cubans deserve (and have the talent) to do better, just not under his watch... what would the history books say!?

Fewer telecom restrictions are just a start

[twasserman]

I'm glad to see another piece of the ridiculously outdated Cuban trade restrictions disappear; I'm hoping that the rest of the 57-year embargo goes away soon.

As for the telecom issue, there are two key issues for the Cubans. The first is that there is very limited bandwidth for Internet access. Cuba just doesn't have enough high-sped satellite or undersea connections to allow video streaming and other high-bandwidth uses. Instead, someone will burn DVDs with movies and other content, then share them with others. It's like the old sneaker-net. So ETECSA (or its successor) will have to address the bandwidth issue before Cuba can have better Internet access. The proposal for the cable to Florida seems like a good start.

The second issue is limited public access to the Internet. If you are at the UCI (Computer science university), it's easy to get on the Internet from their machines, which run Nova, a UCI-developed Linux distro. Home computers with network access are extremely rare, so most people wanting to get onto the Internet must go to an ETECSA-run center and pay for access. The rate is about $2 US/hour, payable only in "hard" currency CUCs, extremely high in a country where average monthly salary is about $25. Overall, the estimate is that about 3% of the Cuban population is on the Internet, mostly through ETESCA's nauta.cu portal.The situation isn't any better with mobile phones, where ETECSA hasn't yet reached 3G speeds and there are no data plans. More info on the ETECSA site (in Spanish) [etecsa.cu].

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[Alioth]

Ouch. Their ADSL for 128k down is three times more expensive than my 50Mbit/s connection at home (which also has additions like static IP) according to the currency conversion at xe.com. Their 8 meg home ADSL costs more monthly than the median monthly household salary in my rich, Western nation - let alone Cuba.

Rewarding governments for oppressing citizens?

[acoustix]

Cuba is still a very oppressive place to live. Why are we rewarding that behavior?

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[onkelonkel]

Exactly. We should treat them like China.

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[Dorianny]

Cuba is still a very oppressive place to live. Why are we rewarding that behavior?

While the sanctions were successful in keeping Cuba weak and underdeveloped, with the USSR long gone Communism and Cuba are no longer credible threats. The Cuban regime has been largely successful at squashing decent and there is no credible opposition we could back instead. The continuation of the Collective-punishment in the form of trade sanctions are really nothing more than feel good measures when it comes to easing oppression. Sanctions are not successful at toppling or compelling a repressive regime