HAVANA Situations – An agreement signed concerning Cuba and French company Orange LLC. to set up a submarine communications cable among Cuba and Martinique turned general public news on December 7, 2022.
Seven times just before, the United States Department of Justice had made a advice to the Federal Communications Fee to reject the authorization ask for made by the organizations ARCOS-1 United states Inc. and SurNet Inc., considering the fact that 2018, to connect a fiber optic cable among the US and Cuba.
The worldwide Arimao submarine cable, which commenced to be installed at the Tricontinental Port in Cienfuegos, touched land in Martinique in the French abroad Division on January 10, 2023, according to ETECSA. A branch of the Orange Group, named Orange Marine, is accountable for the specialized do the job.
The Cuban telecommunications organization also introduced that the possibility of “expanding and diversifying international capacity in the deal with of rising desire for Web and broadband services,” are some of the added benefits of putting in the second fiber optic cable to the island, which joins the cable that already exists involving Cuba and Venezuela (which requires its identify from the abbreviation of Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our The united states, ALBA-1).
Industrial relations between ETECSA and Orange LLC. appear at a time when Cubans are complaining about consistent Internet cuts and a slower relationship than usual. Having said that, statements from officials and transient posts on social media never clarify what enhancements will come with the new fiber optic cable. Nor have they provided aspects about operate designs agreed with Orange LLC. The commence day of the providers of this cable contradict one yet another.
What do we know about fiber optic cables in Cuba?
Nearly 99% of complete Web targeted visitors arrives from undersea cables, the authentic “backbone” of world-wide telecommunications. Even though Cuba is located in just one of the places with the best density of submarine fiber optic cables, it has difficulties accessing the World wide web, as most of its connections occur by way of satellites. This prospects to World-wide-web access getting a lot far more high-priced and sluggish. Therefore, information of the settlement with Orange is really critical.
Looking at the map of undersea cables, you can see that 4 fiber optic cables are at this time touching Cuban soil: Arimao (which connects the island to Martinique), ALBA-1, and anoter two that belong to the US Federal government and hook up the Guantanamo Bay Naval Foundation with Florida (GTMO-1) and Puerto Rico (GTMO PR).
Nevertheless, ALBA-1, the 1st fiber optic cable that connected Cuba to Venezuela and Jamaica, is the only a single that offers World-wide-web expert services to Cubans.
In 2007, Cuba and Venezuela announced they would set up a submarine cable which would be ready to multiply the details transmission, which include photos and voice messages, that come and leave from Cuba, in accordance