Google Will Help Cuba's Internet Evolve

(RTTNews) - Google on Monday announced that it has signed a new deal with Cuba's state-run telecommunications company granting internet users speedy access to YouTube and other Google products.

Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet Inc, signed the deal in Havana with Mayra Arevich Marin, president of State Enterprise of Telecommunications of Cuba, known as ETECSA, which handles all Internet and phone services in the island.

The deal will provide Google's "Global Cache" service to the country. The Cache network stores content from sites like Gmail and YouTube on servers located closer to end users. It reduces the amount of time it takes high-bandwidth content to load by storing data on servers on the island.Google previously made available some of its other products on the island nation, including its Google Chrome Web browser and Google Play music service.

Meanwhile, the move will help only a small percentage of Cubans as vast majority of the communist country's residents do not have access to the Internet. According to a U.N. agency, only 3.4 percent of homes in the country had either intranet or internet access last year.

Over the past two years, the Internet giant has been making small moves into Cuba providing some of its other products, including its Google Chrome Web browser and Google Play music service, with the United States working to re-establish diplomatic relations with the country.

"Taken together, all these projects are tied to Google's core values to make the world's information useful and accessible to everyone regardless of cost, connectivity, and language barriers," the company said in a statement.