Installation of 1,630 kilometers (1,013 miles) of fiber optic cable between Cuba and Venezuela will start Wednesday, Venezuela's science and technology chief said. Cuba claims that not having access to US Internet firms' services has kept it from extending Internet access to all Cubans.
But critics say whatever bandwidth the government has available, most Cubans still cannot gain free access to all information available on the web. Venezuelan Science and Technology Minister Jesse Chacon said "starting that day (Wednesday) we will be laying the cable which is a really vital element of relations between the two countries."
The hook-up will have a 640-gigabyte capacity and multiply Cuba's ability to connect by 3,000, experts from both countries say. The project, set to lay cable from near La Guaira in Venezuela's Vargas state to Siboney, outside the Cuban city of Santiago de Cuba, is expected to cost 63.4 million dollars.
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