Cuba responds to Google CEO's call for open Internet

Cuba responds to Google CEO's call for open Internet
Published July 02, 2014 EFE

The U.S. economic embargo prevents Cubans from accessing many Google
services, Communist Party daily Granma said Wednesday, reacting to
comments by the search giant's chief during a recent visit to the island

CEO Eric Schmidt and three other Google executives traveled to Cuba last
week "to promote the virtues of a free and open Internet," dissident
blogger Yoani Sanchez said in a post on her site, 14ymedio.

Cuba is "one of the few countries in the world that cannot access a good
part of the services" offered by Google because the California-based
company is bound by the "unjust laws" of the U.S. economic embargo,
Granma said.

Neither Android apps nor platforms such as Google Analytics are
available to Internet users in Cuba, the newspaper said.

Granma noted that Schmidt criticized the U.S. embargo in comments online
after his visit to Cuba.

Very few Cubans have Web access from their homes and the only option for
most people is going to a government-run Internet cafe or to a hotel
serving tourists.

Connection charges are steep for a country where the average monthly
wage is $20.

While Cuba's Internet links improved substantially with the arrival in
2011 of an underwater fiber-optic cable connecting the island with
Venezuela, the government says it will take years to upgrade
telecommunications infrastructure to the point where widespread home Web
access will be possible. EFE

Source: Cuba responds to Google CEO's call for open Internet | Fox News
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http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2014/07/02/cuba-responds-to-google-ceo-call-for-open-internet/