There are two very big "howevers," though:
1. It still remains uncertain whether the Castro regime will allow it.
2. While the cable could make calling very cheap, it would be up to the Castro regime to set rates, and it could keep its severe restrictions on Internet access, which are considered amongst the world's most onerous.
Earlier in the year, after announcing a similar fiber optic cable linking Cuba with Venezuela comes online in 2010, the Castro regime stressed that it would continue restricting Internet access.
"We believe that the most responsible policy is to privilege collective access" to the Internet, said Boris Moreno, Castro's Deputy Minister of Computer Science and Communication.
It's always fascinating when a Communist regime uses the word "privilege."
For a U.S. company to contribute to Castro's censorship would be the cruelest of ironies, particularly on the day that Cuba's most famous blogger, Generation Y's Yoani Sanchez, was prohibited by that regime from traveling to New York to receive a prestigious international journalism award from Columbia University.
Therefore, it is more important than ever for the U.S. Congress to quickly pass the Global Online Freedom Act, H.R. 2271, which would make it illegal for U.S. companies to profit from involvement in online censorship.
From China to Castro's Cuba, such practices by U.S. companies should be criminalized.
