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Google and Cuba’s state-run telecommunications company ETECSA have signed a deal that will enable faster access to content from the tech giant.

Under the deal, Google will install servers in Cuba to improve connectivity speeds to its services, including Gmail and YouTube.

ETECSA and Google have reached their agreement in the final weeks of Barack Obama’s presidency.

It is not clear whether Donald Trump will change US policies towards Cuba.

A high-speed fibre-optic cable connecting Cuba to the global internet appears to have finally been activated

Barack Obama restored relations with Cuba earlier this year, after more than five decades of hostility between the two former Cold War rivals.

President-elect Donald Trump has made arguments both for and against improved ties with Cuba since being elected last month.

Even though most Cubans are likely to see the deal with Google as a step forward, it will do little to change the overall online accessibility on the communist island.

Cuba still has one of the lowest online connectivity rates in the world.

The majority of the population is not allowed access to the internet from home and must rely, instead, on expensive Wi-Fi points to get online.

Google said in a statement: “This deal allows Etecsa to use our technology to reduce latency by caching some of our most popular high bandwidth content like YouTube videos at a local level.”

The agreement was signed in Havana by Alphabet Inc chairman Eric Schmidt and ETECSA president Mayra Arevich Marin.

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The Cuban government has granted approval to contemporary artist Kcho to open the country’s first public wireless hub at his cultural center.

Kcho, who has close ties to the Cuban government, is operating the hub using his own, government-approved internet connection, and paying approximately $900 per month to run it.

Only an estimated 5% – 25% of Cubans have any type of internet service.

That is because internet access is incredibly expensive.

For instance, an hour of internet access at a cafe can cost $4.50 – nearly a week’s wages for the average Cuban.

Kcho told the Associated Press he decided to offer free internet at the centre, which opened in western Havana in January, in order to encourage Cubans to familiarize themselves with the internet.

Photo AP

Photo AP

The Cuban government has expressed a keen desire to upgrade its dilapidated or non-existent telecommunications infrastructure.

Although Cuba’s connectivity to the internet was greatly expanded with the completion of an undersea cable between the island and Venezuela in January 2013, the country still has some of the lowest internet connectivity rates in the world.

On January 15, the US announced new rules that ease long-running sanctions against Cuba. A trade embargo has been in place since 1962.

A key part of that decision by the Obama administration was a stated desire to help boost telecommunications on the island.

Last week, Cuba’s state telecom agency Etecsa said it had established a direct telephone connection between the US and Cuba for the first time in 15 years, as relations between the two countries continue to thaw.

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