Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt says Cuban Internet is "trapped in the 90's," according to an article written by Juan O. Tamayo, for the Miami Herald. The fact that Cuba's Internet is old and censored is no surprise, but it is good that somebody important has recognized it. Besides being heavily censored, according to the article, Cuban Internet has "a weak infrastructure dominated by Chinese equipment because of the U.S. trade embargo."
It's interesting, in a week in which Charlie Christ has indicated the Embargo should be eliminated, that this man says the same thing. Of course, the Cuban government might not be so eager to allow electronics into the country even without the Embargo, as the result of the recent scandal of the U.S. government's fake Twitter fiasco.
According to the article, he also states that, "Information is passed hand to hand in USB flash drives and other digital memories in “a type of sneakernet,” ... and youths have been assembling mesh networks of Wi-Fi routers for file sharing and private messaging." Even famous blogger Yoani Sanchez recently stated that she intends to make her materials more available on the island by using such techniques.
We know plenty of people in Cuba, and we know the way this man describes Cuban Internet is quite accurate.
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