EuroWire March 2015

Transatlantic cable

† With tourism leading the way, the Cuban economy will likely improve, creating more of a monetary incentive for American vendors. But another Gigaom source – Robert Muse, a Washington, DC-based specialist in the laws governing USA-Cuba relations – pointed out that the Cuban government still views control of media and information as necessary to state security. In December Mr Muse told Scienti c American : “It seems unlikely that Cuba is going to welcome US telecom infrastructure providers or direct, unmediated broadcasts between the US and the island – at least for now.”

At that time, according to Felice Gorordo, CEO of the Miami-based non-pro t Roots of Hope, which aims to build trade with Cuba, “the [Cuban] government had a couple of hundred thousand mobile phones. There are now more than two million in Cuba – all 2G.” No undersea cable to the USA Ms Darrow noted that, “needless to say,” Mr Gorordo – who is also a White House Fellow in the US O ce of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental A airs – is happy about the thaw in USA-Cuba relations. But he doubts that an accurate estimate can be made of the size of the potential telecom market in Cuba, and sees no guarantee that the still-authoritarian Cuban government will allow an incursion of USA technology interests. A potential obstacle is ETECSA, the state-run entity that controls telecommunications in Cuba. ETECSA is “not only the operator but also controls the cellular phone company and the cybercafes,” Mr Gorordo told Ms Darrow. “It is a monopoly at each end – retail and wholesale.” Connectivity is another challenge. As Gigaom pointed out in December, Cuba – only 228 nautical miles from Florida – has no submarine cable connections to the USA. Its sole undersea bre optic cable has two branches: to nearby Jamaica and Venezuela. † By way of comparison to Cuba, the Dominican Republic – a country of similar size but with one million fewer people – has ve bre optic cables linking it to the rest of the world. “So the need is there, presuming Cuba wants to be part of the larger world,” wrote Ms Darrow. But the cash is not, she was told by an executive with a large USA computer and networking company. Making another comparison, this observer equated the economy of Cuba with that of West Virginia – the third-poorest state in America.

Mobile phones gain ground – quite a bit of it – in the highest echelons of the USA civil service

According to a report from the management consulting rm ICF International (Fairfax, Virginia), some 93 per cent of senior employees of the USA federal government embrace digital technology in the workplace, with nearly three-quarters using an agency-issued smartphone and about half using a personal device for business purposes. As reviewed in FierceMobileGov- ernment (28 th January), the ICF report, commissioned by the National Academy of Public Administration, surveyed responses from more than 500 randomly selected senior civil servants GS-13 and above in the federal system of 15 pay-grades. In a major nding by ICF – which also examined issues of IT investment and technology procurement – 82 per cent of the federal employees said they believe job-related online information and services should be available at any time and on any device.

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March 2015