Telecom Italia helped built Cuba's communications network before the Cuban government bought their shares and privatized the company. SES S.A. from Luxembourg

Telecom Italia helped built Cuba's communications network before the Cuban government bought their shares and privatized the company. SES S.A. from Luxembourg connected Cuba to the world via satellite. Telefónica of Spain owns a significant run of Caribbean undersea fiber. They're actively trying to increase their business with Cuba but Cuba refuses to open more of its communications network. The following quote from José Ramón Machado Ventura, a high ranking Cuban official, offers an alternative explanation to why Cuba doesn't have better Internet. http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2015-07-11/a-los-jovenes-la-verdad-argumentada-y-no-el-dogma http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cuba/2015-07-11/a-los-jovenes-... >Todo el mundo sabe por qué en Cuba no hay más Internet, porque ello tiene un alto costo. Existen algunos que nos la quieren dar gratis, pero no lo hacen con el fin de que el pueblo cubano se comunique, sino con el propósito de penetrarnos y hacer trabajo ideológico para lograr una nueva conquista. Tenemos que poseer Internet, pero a nuestra forma, sabiendo que es una intención del imperialismo manejarla como una vía más de destruir a la Revolución. Rough translation >Everybody knows why cuba doesn't have more Internet, because it comes at a high cost. There are those who want to give it to us for free, but not with the intent of helping the Cuban people to communicate, but with the purpose of penetrating us and doing ideological work to create a new conquest. We need to have Internet, but our way, knowing that it is the intent of the imperialists to use it as a way to destroy the Revolution.