Google Signs Deal With Cuba to Speed Services

Alphabet Inc.'s Google completed a deal with Cuba to place computer servers on the island to speed Google services there, a pact that officials hurried to complete before President Barack Obama leaves office next month.

Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt signed an agreement in Havana on Monday with Cuba's state telecommunications company, La Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba SA, concluding months of talks.

The Google servers in Cuba will store content such as popular YouTube videos, allowing the content to be delivered more quickly to Cuban users. The move is the latest to improve internet access for the country of 11.2 million people, which has long been one of the world's most isolated nations.

Mobile phones, Wi-Fi hotspots and broadband connections to homes are all increasing rapidly in Cuba, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Roughly 150,000 people accessed the internet daily last year, more than double the year prior, the chamber said.

Google, which has long had an obsession with the speed of its internet services, operates servers around the globe to accelerate speeds for local users, including in Greenland, Somalia, Yemen and the Gaza Strip, said Doug Madory, an internet-infrastructure analyst at Dynamic Network Services Inc. The shortlist of countries without Google servers includes China, Iran, Syria and North Korea, among others, Mr. Madory said.

Google has found that when its services respond more quickly, users conduct more Google searches and watch more YouTube videos, enabling the company to sell more ads.

The deal comes after the Obama administration had pressed Cuban officials to complete pending deals with U.S. firms ahead of the inauguration next month of President-elect Donald Trump, who has questioned the U.S.'s warming relations with Cuba.

The administration hopes such deals could help make permanent its moves to open diplomatic and commercial ties between the countries. Cuba last week approved plans by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. and Pearl Seas Cruises to launch cruises to the island nation next year.

Signs of spreading internet use are apparent around Cuba, from the small companies created under a recent economic opening to the parks and street corners where internet hotspots attract many young people.

In front of one Havana park with Wi-Fi, whereas many as 150 people sometimes sit staring at their phones, Fé lix Emilio Villamontes helps run a three-person computer-repair shop called Voltaplus, where business is accelerating.

"We're more or less just now starting to see earnings, because this kind of business has lots of competition, lots of repair shops nearby," the 45-year-old Mr. Villamontes said. "People are really demanding around here. You have to show that you do it well to keep your clients."

Write to Jack Nicas at [e-mail] and Juan Forero at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 12, 2016 15:45 ET (20:45 GMT)

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