Quote:
Originally Posted by andy
Apparently there is also a cable from Florida to Yucatan which passes only 50 km or so from Havana, but presumably the chances of something being arranged there are based on political rather than technical reasons
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It is my understanding that for many years Cuba's connection to the rest of the world was via an old
tropospheric scatter system to Florida, operated by AT&T. The US embargo had an exception for existing telecommunications communications systems. This continued until Hurricane Andrew destroyed the Florida antennas in 1992. There was no financial justification to rebuild the system. Since then Cuba's main links to the rest of the world have been via satellite. However, the cables you mention are a possibility.
If the cable from Fla to Yucatan is not new, there would be little reason to try to run a branch to Cuba. Much easier and better to run a new cable. However, even if the US was willing, the Cubans would probably rather deal with someone else.
I also recall reading somewhere that one of the major reasons that the US invaded S.E. Cuba in the Spanish-American War is that was where the telegraph cables to Spain came ashore.