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The title is a bit of a misnomer. Cuba was already connected to the Internet in the early 1990s. See http://som.csudh.edu/fac/lpress/devnat/nations/cuba/cuba2.h

by dalke 11y ago

The title is a bit of a misnomer. Cuba was already connected to the Internet in the early 1990s. See http://som.csudh.edu/fac/lpress/devnat/nations/cuba/cuba2.htm http://som.csudh.edu/fac/lpress/devnat/nations/cuba/cuba2.ht... : > One of the authors (Snyder) was able to make a direct connection from the CENIAI Unix system to a VAX/VMS system in his apartment using a single X.121 address at the Havana end. To get to the Login prompt, his connection ran from the PAD program on the CENIAI Unix microcomputer over the X.25 satellite link to Moscow. VNIIPAS received the call and routed it to the international Sprint network. It was routed to Reston, Virginia where it entered the domestic US network. Sprint conveyed the call to Columbus, Ohio, and passed it to the CompuServe X.25 gateway. CompuServe carried it to University of Arizona's Telecommunications Group where it was translated from X.25 to DECnet format, and routed through Ethernet, fiber optics, a 56K line, and an asynch 9.6K DECnet line to Snyder's apartment. The gateway VAX in his apartment passed the call to his workstation VAX, which displayed ``Username:''!

jpatokal 11y ago
North Korea has also been connected to the Internet for a good long time -- doesn't mean that 99.9% of its population has any access. I do agree that this article is a bit hypey, a few dozen Wifi hotspots that charge $2/hr isn't exactly a telecoms resolutions. Unlike NK, Cuba has had public Internet for a long time, it has just been expensive and inconvenient, and continues to be so.
- dalke 11y ago
  What is your point of bringing North Korea into the thread? There are plenty of countries which have worse internet penetration than Cuba, including Haiti, the Solomon Islands, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Surely the last a better comparison to Cuba than NK, no? BTW, a quick check of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba says that more about 3% of the population had internet access already by 2002, and about 25% now. Slow Internet? Certainly. Filtered? Yes. Expensive? Yes. But why bring up an irrelevant 0.1% statistic?
  - hnal943 11y ago
    You can't think of any similarities between North Korea and Cuba?
    - dalke 11y ago
      I can think of similarities between North Korea and pretty much any other country in the world. I'm sure you can as well.
    - cleaver 11y ago
      Cuba's isolation is only from the United States. The rest of the world comes and goes as they please. It's a favourite tourist destination of many Canadians and Europeans. I've seen Chinese construction and petroleum interests there as well. As for Internet, they had it, but prices are far beyond what an individual can afford. It was also so slow it wasn't worth bothering. I gave up after 30 minutes having only downloaded a few emails. I recently met a Web developer visiting Toronto from Cuba. I was impressed that he could get any work done with such slow downloads.
  - bostonpete 11y ago
    I don't think the NK comment was meant to equate Cuba and NK but rather to illustrate the fact that a country can have one or more internet connections and still not be considered connected as a country. Your earlier comment claimed that the title was a misnomer because there was a connection established in the early 90s.
    - dalke 11y ago
      It certainly was meant to equate aspects of Cuba and North Korea. The text "North Korea has also" is a direct comparison between the two countries, as is "Unlike NK, Cuba ...". I don't see how the comparison to North Korea is useful. For one, I've been distracted by the phrase 'connected to the Internet for a good long time'. I can find nothing to verify that statement, and I can't help but wonder if it's actually true. If Cuba has had 'public Internet for a long time', then how much longer has NK had internet access? Leave out the North Korea reference and the text becomes "Cuba may have had Internet for a good long time -- doesn't mean that more than a select few had any access". That's simpler, persuasive, and more obviously correct. Which makes me think there has to be a reason for mentioning North Korea in the first place, out of all the available possibilities.
deleted 11y ago
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by dalke 11y ago

jpatokal 11y ago

North Korea has also been connected to the Internet for a good long time -- doesn't mean that 99.9% of its population has any access. I do agree that this article is a bit hypey, a few dozen Wifi hotspots that charge $2/hr isn't exactly a telecoms resolutions. Unlike NK, Cuba has had public Internet for a long time, it has just been expensive and inconvenient, and continues to be so.

dalke 11y ago
What is your point of bringing North Korea into the thread? There are plenty of countries which have worse internet penetration than Cuba, including Haiti, the Solomon Islands, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Surely the last a better comparison to Cuba than NK, no? BTW, a quick check of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Cuba says that more about 3% of the population had internet access already by 2002, and about 25% now. Slow Internet? Certainly. Filtered? Yes. Expensive? Yes. But why bring up an irrelevant 0.1% statistic?
- hnal943 11y ago
  You can't think of any similarities between North Korea and Cuba?
  - dalke 11y ago
    I can think of similarities between North Korea and pretty much any other country in the world. I'm sure you can as well.
  - cleaver 11y ago
    Cuba's isolation is only from the United States. The rest of the world comes and goes as they please. It's a favourite tourist destination of many Canadians and Europeans. I've seen Chinese construction and petroleum interests there as well. As for Internet, they had it, but prices are far beyond what an individual can afford. It was also so slow it wasn't worth bothering. I gave up after 30 minutes having only downloaded a few emails. I recently met a Web developer visiting Toronto from Cuba. I was impressed that he could get any work done with such slow downloads.
- bostonpete 11y ago
  I don't think the NK comment was meant to equate Cuba and NK but rather to illustrate the fact that a country can have one or more internet connections and still not be considered connected as a country. Your earlier comment claimed that the title was a misnomer because there was a connection established in the early 90s.
  - dalke 11y ago
    It certainly was meant to equate aspects of Cuba and North Korea. The text "North Korea has also" is a direct comparison between the two countries, as is "Unlike NK, Cuba ...". I don't see how the comparison to North Korea is useful. For one, I've been distracted by the phrase 'connected to the Internet for a good long time'. I can find nothing to verify that statement, and I can't help but wonder if it's actually true. If Cuba has had 'public Internet for a long time', then how much longer has NK had internet access? Leave out the North Korea reference and the text becomes "Cuba may have had Internet for a good long time -- doesn't mean that more than a select few had any access". That's simpler, persuasive, and more obviously correct. Which makes me think there has to be a reason for mentioning North Korea in the first place, out of all the available possibilities.

deleted 11y ago

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