Google has made Chrome available for download in Cuba – what has changed?

Google announced yesterday that folks with Cuban IP addresses can now surf to www.google.com.cu and download a copy of the Chrome browser. That is a small bit of good news, but, what has changed?

While Google could not legally "export" Chrome to Cuba before yesterday, Cubans who want US software have always been able to get it. During an early trip to Cuba, I visited a government storefront in Havana where you could get copies of the latest software releases -- as long as you brought your own floppy disks and, if you wanted a manual, printer paper. Today software circulates on (non-government) flash drives. I don't think this announcement changes anything for the few Cuban users with Internet access.

Did Google change their policy? I doubt it -- they have always wanted people to use Google software and services -- on principle and also to show them ads. In 2011, they made Google Earth, Picasa and Chrome available for download in Iran, saying that some export restrictions had been lifted. The post also says they are:

committed to full compliance with U.S. export controls and sanctions programs and, as a condition of our export licenses from the Treasury Department, we will continue to block IP addresses associated with the Iranian government.

In 2012, they made Chrome extensions available for download in Iran and in 2013 the Google Earth plug-in became available.

In a terse post on the Google policy blog, Pedro Less Andrade, Director of Government Affairs & Public Policy, Latin America, says "we’ve been working to figure out how to make more tools available in sanctioned countries" and I believe him.

I see no reason to believe the Cuban government would have objected to users having Chrome instead of another browser, so that leaves US policy -- has US policy changed? It has obviously changed at least a little bit -- Google would not offer Chrome without a license. If they are taking the piecemeal approach they used in Iran, this is a trivial announcement, but this might signal a more significant shift.

Google's announcement refers to "evolving" trade restrictions -- has the "evolution" sped up? Could this announcement be related to the trip Eric Schmidt made to Cuba last month?

Schmidt was accompanied by Jared Cohen, Google's Director of Ideas, who, before joining Google, was a member of the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff and served as an advisor to Condoleezza Rice and later Hillary Clinton. Google has Washington insiders like Cohen and Schmidt as well as lobbyists, and I'd like to think that making Chrome available is just the start of a major shift in Washington policy -- encouraging any export or service that enhances Cuban communication and connectivity and indemnifying US companies against any claims the Cuban government may have against them. One can even imagine Google or US Satellite Internet companies providing connectivity to Cubans. The Castros might not be too crazy about that idea, but I can dream.

Being able to download Chrome will have no impact on Cuban users, and I do not think either Google or the Castro government had to change policies to allow it. If anything has changed, it is the policy of the US Government -- let's hope this was the tip of the iceberg.

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Update 5/6/2015

Google is now allowing Cubans to use their Internet Explorer Toolbar.

This is a minor step since Cuban's could already use Google's Chrome browser, which provides much of the same capability as the Toolbar. I suspect its main impact will be to give Cuban Internet Explorer users a chance to switch from Bing/Yahoo to the Google search engine.

When you install the Toolbar, the default is to switch search from Bing/Yahoo to Google.

That being said, the move raises intersting questions like: What precipitated the offering – debate within Google or a US government policy change? Does this foreshadow opening of development tools and services, which would be a more important easing?

The pros and cons of and roadblocks to the offering would make a much more interesting story than the availability of the Google Toolbar itself.

Annual report on Cuban ICT

The Cuban National Statistics Office reports over one million computers and twice as many .CU domain names as the previous year.

The Cuban National Statistics Office has released their 2014 Information and Communication Technology report. Here are the statistics on computers and networks:

They say there are over a million computers in Cuba and about half of them are networked. They report nearly 3 million Internet users, but say nothing of how many of those users have global access. The experience of a Cuban "user" is also much different than that of a "user" in a developed nation -- most access is via shared computers over dial up links. Access is infrequent and too slow to support modern Web sites.

For more discussion of the limitations of these statistics, see the Pervaiveness section of my 2011 report on the State of the Cuban Internet. The data has changed somewhat, but not the interpretation.

The number of .CU domain names doubled in 2013, reflecting a sharp increase in the number of businesses and other organizations using the Internet. This could have been triggered by liberalization of laws allowing private sector business.

The percent of the population with cell phone coverage was unchanged in 2013, indicating either a lack of capital for investment or a lag in the statistical reporting process.

These statistics are gathered by the Communication Ministry and, as with other nations, self-reported to the International Telecommunication Union.

The Cuban man-in-the-street view of Alan Gross

Iván García has written a post on Alan Gross in which he gives some insight into the man-in-the-street's view of the case. A kid who lives in a poor neighborhood near the prison hospital where Gross is being held says he has heard the name somewhere. “He’s the gringo who they locked up for spying in Cuba.” That is how the Cuban media characterize the case.

When Ernesto, a man who repairs bicycle and car tires, was told what Gross had actually smuggled into Cuba, he remarked that “they sell all this stuff on Revolico (an on-line site condemned by the government). What was the Yank up to, setting up a spy ring with commercial toys?”

Ernesto understands what we have said previously -- Cuba has greatly exaggerated the impact Gross's equipment would have had had he succeeded. What he doen't know is the amount of money the US spent on a plot that would have had virtually no impact had it succeeded. (There is an indication that the government may have paid up to $6 million for the project and Alan Gross would have cleared $164,889 had he succeeded).

There are no good guys in this story.

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Update 8/17/2014

The Huffington Post has an article on the politics of the Alan Gross case. It blames Raul Castro and US politicians for the stalemate.

Under the law when and where they were arrested Alan and the Cuban Five were guilty. The fairness of both trials left much to be desired and the sentences were excessive. The bottom line is that all were witting and willing instruments of anachronistic policies but they have paid an undeserved price because of their governments inflexibility and self-righteousness.

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Update 9/5/2014

The Associated Press reports that Fernando Gonzalez, one of the "Cuban 5," is "cautiously optimistic" about a trade of the remaining Cuban prisoners for Alan Gross. That is the good news. The bad news is that his hope is based on things like Hilary Clinton's book and faith in President Obama, nothing concrete. Gonzalez said he thought freeing Gross without freeing his three colleagues "would be very difficult."

For other posts on Gross and what he actually did, click here.

Forget politics for a minute -- how about entertainment?

Twenty years ago, while working on a study of the Internet in India, I had a chance to meet Professor M.S. Swaminathan, at his research foundation in Chennai. Our research framework included several facets of the Internet in a nation, including its use in commerce, education, government and health care. Professor Swaminathan pointed out that we were completely overlooking what would be the most important application, entertainment.

This was long before selfies, YouTube, Angry Birds or Netflix existed -- he was on to something that we "serious" academics could not see.

Observers of the Cuban Internet have a tendency to focus on serious applications like political dissent, health care and education, but we should heed Professor Swaminathan's admonition.

I've noted that wired and wireless local area networks are springing up around Cuba, and, evidently the government is trying to crack down on them. But, most people are using these networks for entertainment -- games, posting selfies, watching video, listening to music, etc., not politics.

Cuban entertainment is also found on the Internet. For example, Silvio Rodriguez, singing a traditional song, Ojala, has over 17.5 million hits on YouTube:



and recent song, Ojos Color Sol, sung with the Puerto Rican hip hop duo Calle 13 has had close to 5 million hits.



A young Cuban singer, Kamankola, has used the Internet in a different way, raising over 3,000 € on the Verkami crowdfunding site to produce his debut CD "Antes que lo prohiban."

Maybe we are paying to much attention to the political applications of the Internet and not enough to cultural applications.

A report of cabled local area networks in Cuba

I wrote about WiFi-based local area networks (LANs) a while ago and, according to an article posted on Cubanet, cabled LANs are now proliferating in Cuba.

The article says some LANs use underground cables to avoid detection and others run their cables above high voltage electricity cables. (Wouldn't they have problems with interference if they used cables with standard insulation)?

Cabled LANs are faster and able to accommodate more users than WiFi-based LANs, and, to the extent that the cables were under ground, harder for authorities to detect. (The article sites a case where, 5 months ago, a network was detected and the system administrator was fined 30,000 Cuban pesos).

Typically, users pay 2 convertible pesos or 50 Cuban pesos per month for access, which the article says is less than the going rate for pirated cable TV. (Years ago, people in Havana openly pirated broadcast TV intended for hotels, then they started pirating satellite TV and now LAN TV -- Cubans are natural cord cutters).

The article quotes a 22 year old user who says he can play games, download movies, post comments and upload photos ... "of course, nothing against the government." We heard the same thing about WiFi LANs -- they are being used for games and selfies, not political debate or subversion.

This article is anecdotal -- are any readers using a cabled LAN in Cuba? Are they widespread in and outside of Havana?

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Also see: http://laredcubana.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-report-of-cabled-local-area-networks.html

Another USAID project in Cuba

The Assoicate Press reports of a now defunct USAID funded program to encourage Cuban dissidents. As with Alan Gross, this program seems to have put naive people in danger, while supporting Creative Associates International, the contractor that organized the project. This and the Alan Gross case remind me of the Washington contracting system, which gave us the broken Obamacare Web site (bad news) and the fresh approach being taken to Internet application development by USDS and 18F (good news).

Ex-office of Creative Associates organization in Havana