Improved Internet connectivity is coming to four Cuban universities.

Minister of Higher Education (MES), Rodolfo Alarcón Ortiz, has authorized on-campus Internet access for all teachers, researchers and students at the universities of Havana (UH), Computer Science (UCI) and the East and at the Higher Polytechnic Institute Jose Antonio Echevarria (CUJAE). They will also provide dial-up access from the homes of the faculty, researchers and students.

While encouraging, the brief announcement (in a letter to the universities) offers no detail information on the plan. For example, it says nothing about the speed of the connections from the universities to the Internet. In an earlier post, I suggested several short-term steps Cuba could take to improve connectivity. One of those was to provide backbone connectivity linking universities to the undersea cable and I hope that will be the case for these schools. If the MES can provide high speed links to the campuses, students and staff can deploy local area networks to utilize them.

(Do any readers know what sort of connectivity these universities have today)?

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Education announced plans to provide Internet connectivity to all schools from day-care centers through high school during the next three years. Together, these announcements indicate that Cuba is giving educational connetivity priority.