Sources: Cuba-Google agreement for faster Internet on the island

Google and the Cuban government have struck a deal giving Cubans faster access to the Internet giant’s content, two people familiar with the agreement said on Friday, as AP reported today.

Google is installing multiple servers in Cuba that will host much of the company's most popular content, the person said on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been made public. The agreement was being announced by Google chairman Eric Schmidt Monday morning in Havana.

It allows Cubans access to a network called Google Global Cache that stores content from Google-run sites such as Gmail, Google Drive and YouTube on servers that sit within relatively short distances of their end users around the world.

The U.S. and Cuba have struck a series of bilateral deals on issues ranging from environmental protection to direct mail since the declaration of detente on December 17, 2014, but business ties have failed to keep pace. 

“There are many other weak links in the chain,” said Larry Press, a California-based expert on the Cuban Internet.
He said that while the technological impact of the deal remained unclear, it was a significant development for a country that has shied away from any ties between US companies and a telecommunications infrastructure that is closely guarded against real or imagined threats to national security.
“It’s also a sign that they’re willing to go a little further with Google,” Press said.