HAVANA – Google and the Cuban government signed a deal Monday allowing the internet giant to provide faster access to its data by installing servers on the island that will store much of the company’s most popular content.

Storing Google data in Cuba eliminates the long distances that signals must travel from the island through Venezuela to the nearest Google server. More than a half century after cutting virtually all economic ties with Cuba, the United States has no direct data link to the island.

The deal announced Monday removes one of the many obstacles to a normal internet in Cuba, which suffers from some of the world’s most limited and expensive access. Home connections remain illegal for most Cubans and the government charges the equivalent of a month’s average salary for 10 hours of access to public Wi-Fi spots with speeds frequently too slow to download files or watch streaming video.

The deal does not affect Cuba’s antiquated communications infrastructure or broaden public access to the internet, but it could make Google websites like YouTube or Gmail up to 10 times faster for users inside Cuba. Content hosted by other companies will not be affected.

Neither Google chairman Eric Schmidt nor Cuban officials spoke to the press after the signing ceremony in Havana. </s> HAVANA – A source familiar with a deal being announced between Cuba and Google says it will make Google websites like YouTube run up to 10 times faster on the island.

Google is installing multiple servers in Cuba that will host much of the company's most popular content, the person said on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been made public. The agreement was being announced by Google chairman Eric Schmidt Monday morning in Havana.

Storing Google data in Cuba eliminates the long distances that signals must travel from the island through Venezuela to the nearest Google server. The U.S. has no direct data link to the island, contributing to painfully slow internet speeds that make sites like YouTube virtually impossible to use for many. </s> Google signed an agreement with the Cuban government on Monday granting internet users on the Communist-run island quicker access to its branded content.

Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc, signed the deal with Mayra Arevich Marin, president of state telecommunications monopoly ETECSA. It grants Cubans speedy access to the Google Global Cache network, which stores content from sites like Gmail and YouTube on servers located closer to end users.

In a country where public internet access is limited to slow and expensive Wi-Fi hot spots, it was not clear how the deal would actually impact service in the short term.

“This deal allows ETECSA to use our technology to reduce latency by caching some of our most popular high bandwidth content like YouTube videos at a local level,” a Google statement said.

“This may improve reception of cached materials, but not for example email which depends on local bandwidth,” a local telecommunications technician said, requesting anonymity for fear of losing his job.

Google and ETECSA were not immediately available for comment.

President Barack Obama has made improved internet access a central part of his efforts to normalize relations with Cuba, first announced two years ago.

However, Cuba to date has balked at allowing U.S. companies to participate in wiring the country, citing national security concerns.

Whether because of a lack of investment or concerns about the flow of information in a Communist state that monopolizes the media, Cuba has lagged behind in internet usage. Only 3.4 per cent of Cuban homes had either intranet or internet access last year, according to a U.N. agency.

The Google deal comes as officials in Havana and Washington are working to wrap up pending commercial accords before President Barack Obama leaves office next month.

President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to scrap detente between the Cold War foes unless Cuba makes political and other concessions.

Improved bilateral relations have been accomplished through executive orders circumventing trade embargo laws and can easily be reversed by Trump.

The Obama administration has said it hopes increased commercial links between the two countries will make it difficult for future administrations to undo the recent warming in U.S.-Cuba relations. </s> Deal that eliminates long distances signal have to travel through Venezuela removes major obstacle to normal, faster internet in Cuba

Google and the Cuban government have signed a deal allowing the internet giant to provide faster access to its data by installing servers on the island that will store much of the company’s most popular content.

Storing Google data in Cuba eliminates the long distances that signals must travel from the island through Venezuela to the nearest Google server. More than a half century after cutting virtually all economic ties with Cuba, the US has no direct data link to the island.

The deal announced on Monday removes one of the many obstacles to a normal internet in Cuba, which suffers from some of the world’s most limited and expensive access. Home connections remain illegal for most Cubans and the government charges the equivalent of a month’s average salary for 10 hours of access to public Wi-Fi spots with speeds frequently too slow to download files or watch streaming video.

Cuba's 'offline internet': no access, no power, no problem Read more

The deal does not affect Cuba’s antiquated communications infrastructure or broaden public access to the internet, but it could make Google websites like YouTube or Gmail up to 10 times faster for users inside Cuba. Content hosted by other companies will not be affected.

Neither Google chairman Eric Schmidt nor Cuban officials spoke to the press after the signing ceremony in Havana.

Cuban officials appear to be accelerating their approvals of deals with US companies in an attempt to build momentum behind US-Cuba normalization before Donald Trump takes office next month. The Google pact was announced less than a week after Cuba gave three US cruise companies permission to begin sailing to the island next year. Officials familiar with the negotiations say other deals, including one with General Electric, are in the works.

The US and Cuba have struck a series of bilateral deals on issues ranging from environmental protection to direct mail since the declaration of detente on 17 December 2014, but business ties have failed to keep pace. The Cuban government has blamed the US trade embargo on Cuba. Many US businesses say Cuba has been moving on most proposals so slowly that some suspect the government has been deliberately limiting the development of economic ties.

The Google program could provide ammunition for US advocates of closer ties with Cuba. Both pro-detente forces and those arguing for a hard line on President Raúl Castro’s single-party government have been pushing for Cubans to have better access to information.

If the Google deal proves to truly improve internet access for a significant number of Cubans, it ties information access to US-Cuban detente in a way that could prove politically difficult to undo for anti-Castro officials in the incoming Trump administration. </s> Alphabet's Google has suspended business with Huawei that requires the transfer of hardware, software and technical services except those publicly available via open source licensing, in a blow to the Chinese technology company that the US government has sought to blacklist around the world.

Holders of current Huawei smartphones with Google apps, however, will continue to be able to use and download app updates.

"We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications," a Google spokesperson said.

The suspension could hobble Huawei's smartphone business outside China as the tech giant will immediately lose access to updates to Google's Android operating system.

Future versions of Huawei smartphones that run on Android will also lose access to popular services including the Google Play Store and Gmail and YouTube apps.

"Huawei will only be able to use the public version of Android and will not be able to get access to proprietary apps and services from Google," a source told Reuters.

Popular Google apps such as Gmail, YouTube and the Chrome browser that are available through Google's Play Store will disappear from future Huawei handsets as those services are not covered by the open source license and require a commercial agreement with Google.

But users of existing Huawei devices who have access to the Google Play Store will still be able to download app updates provided by Google.

Apps such as Gmail are updated through the store, unlike operating system updates which are typically handled by phone manufacturers and telecoms carriers, which the blacklist could affect.

The Trump administration on Thursday added Huawei Technologies to a trade blacklist, immediately enacting restrictions that will make it extremely difficult for the company to do business with US counterparts.

On Friday the US Commerce Department said it was considering scaling back restrictions on Huawei to "prevent the interruption of existing network operations and equipment." It was not immediately clear on Sunday whether Huawei's access to mobile software would be affected.

The extent to which Huawei will be hurt by the US government's blacklist is not yet known as its global supply chain assesses the impact. Chip experts have questioned Huawei's ability to continue to operate without US help.

The impact is expected to be minimal in the Chinese market. Most Google mobile apps are banned in China, where alternatives are offered by domestic competitors such as Tencent and Baidu.

Huawei has said it has spent the last few years preparing a contingency plan by developing its own technology in case it is blocked from using Android. Some of this technology is already being used in products sold in China.

Huawei's European business, its second-biggest market, could be hit as Huawei licenses these services from Google in Europe. </s> Google has been hit with a record-breaking fine of 2.4 billion euros (£2.1bn) by the European Commission for abusing its monopoly on Internet searches within the European Union.

The massive fine comes at the culmination of seven years of investigation and probing by the EC which ruled that Google had broken EU law on competition by exploiting its search engine results to promote its own shopping service in a a fashion that was to the detriment of other price comparison sites.

Alongside the fine Google has also been ordered by the EC to end its anit-competative practices within 90 days of face a further fine. The current fine, which Google may appeal, is the largest it has ever faced and the largest ever handed out by the EU.

“Google’s strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn’t just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals. Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors,” said Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s Competition Commissioner.

“What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” she added. “It has denied other companies the chance to compete on their merits and to innovate, and most importantly it has denied European consumers the benefits of competition, genuine choice and innovation.”

The result of Google’s search practices, according to the EC’s investigation, led Google’s comparison shopping service receiving significant hikes in traffic i the UK, Germany, France and Spain and other major EU nations, while traffic to rival services dropped significantly, essentially allowing Google to create a from of monopoly for itself.

Naturally, Google does not believe the EC’s investigation results and the fine it has been saddled with are fair.

“We believe the European Commission’s online shopping decision underestimates the value of those kinds of fast and easy connections,” said Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel.

“While some comparison shopping sites naturally want Google to show them more prominently, our data show that people usually prefer links that take them directly to the products they want, not to websites where they have to repeat their searches.

“We think our current shopping results are useful and are a much-improved version of the text-only ads we showed a decade ago. Showing ads that include pictures, ratings, and prices benefits us, our advertisers, and most of all, our users. And we show them only when your feedback tells us they are relevant. Thousands of European merchants use these ads to compete with larger companies like Amazon and eBay.”

As such, an appeal could very much be on Google’s agenda.

“Given the evidence, we respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today. We will review the Commission’s decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case,” noted Walker.

Google is no stranger to tackling antitrust woes, as it recently came to a settlement with Russia over the use of default search engines in Android devices.

Why not test your knowledge of European tech pioneers and the EU’s contribution to the industry?Try our quiz! </s> Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said the outgoing administration hopes to persuade the incoming Trump administration to preserve Obama's policy of engagement despite the president-elect's threat to roll back the opening with the communist-ruled island.

Just weeks before Trump takes office, Obama and his aides are seeking to further cement one of his top foreign policy legacy initiatives, a breakthrough between former Cold War foes announced two years ago. But since Obama eased travel and trade restrictions through executive actions, Trump would be able to reverse them on his own if he chooses to do so.

"Cuba has been and will be on the list of issues where President Obama will make his case that this is the right approach for American interests," Rhodes told reporters on a teleconference, referring to transition talks between the two.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has vowed to "terminate" Obama's engagement with Cuba unless Havana gives the United States what he calls a "better deal," including allowing broader political freedoms on the island. The Cuban government so far has refrained from commenting on Trump's statements.

"What we believe would be very damaging is any effort to turn off the opening," Rhodes said, asserting it would hurt the Cuban people, U.S. business interests and Washington's standing in Latin America.

He said the administration has sought to make the policy "irreversible," and suggested that Trump, a businessman-turned-politician, should consider whether it makes sense to roll it back.

Rhodes, who played a key role in negotiating the opening, said a reversal would boost Cuban "hardliners" opposed to engagement as Havana heads into its own political transition. Cuban President Raul Castro has said he will step down in 2018.

"Do you really want to cancel travel plans for hundreds of thousands of Americans?” Rhodes asked. "Do you want to tell businesses as diverse as our major airlines or Google or General Electric ... that have been pursuing opportunities in Cuba that they have to terminate those activities?"

Rhodes, who was also in Cuba for memorial services for late Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro this month, said Cuban officials were uncertain about Trump and would wait to see how he proceeded.

The White House is planning a meeting with "stakeholders" on Cuba policy this week, he said.

The administration is pressing Cuba for further economic reforms, Rhodes said, and encouraging new deals with U.S. companies before Obama leaves office.

Rhodes also said there was currently an "incentive structure" for economic change following the death of Fidel Castro, a vocal critic of detente, but that no progress has been made on political reforms.

U.S. critics of Cuba engagement have accused Obama of making too many concessions. But despite restoration of relations, the Republican-controlled Congress has resisted lifting the broader U.S. economic embargo. </s> Google is restricting future business with Huawei, cutting off access to its Android operating system and its popular apps, after the Trump administration escalated a crackdown on the Chinese tech firm.

Google’s suspension, first reported by Reuters, amounts to a major blow to the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, which will no longer receive access and support for Google’s proprietary apps like Gmail, YouTube and Chrome.

The open source version of Android will still be available to Huawei, according to the report, but the Chinese tech giant will immediately lose access to updates to the operating system. And though existing Huawei users can still download popular Google apps through the Google Play store, they won’t be available on future Huawei handsets.

People who already own Huawei phones will not see a sudden disappearance of their services.

“We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications,” Google said in a statement Monday. “For users of our services, Google Play and the security protections from Google Play Protect will continue to function on existing Huawei devices.”

Google’s suspension is the latest blow against Huawei. Last week, the U.S. government added Huawei to its “Entity List,” forcing the company to obtain a U.S. government license to buy American technology. Known to some as the “death penalty,” the designation makes it virtually impossible for firms to survive once U.S. businesses cut off their dealings.

The penalty was seen as a dramatic escalation of the economic clash between the Trump administration and China.

The Commerce Department said it had initiated the crackdown because Huawei “is engaged in activities that are contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interest.” The Department of Justice has also accused it of violating Iran sanctions.

The listing will have an immediate affect on the telecommunications company, which has significant backing from the Chinese government. Huawei said last week that it spends more than $1 out of every $7 of its annual $70 billion procurement budget buying equipment from U.S. companies. The ban could also hinder Huawei’s ability to produce its latest equipment since the company relies on U.S. suppliers for components including wireless chips, antennas and handset operating software.

In a statement Monday, Huawei said it has made “substantial contributions” to Android’s global ecosystem; 2.5 billion devices around the world run on Android. The company said it will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to owners of its smartphones and tablets.

According to data released before the U.S. government listing, Huawei claimed 19 percent of the global smartphone market, the research firm IDC said, behind only Samsung’s 23.1 percent, which was on the decline. </s> The European Commission has fined Google 2.42 billion euros ($2.72 billion) after finding that the company used its dominant search engine to drive people toward another Google product, its shopping service.

"What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules," said European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager. "It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation."

The fine's amount, the European Commission says, is due to "the duration and gravity" of Google's actions. It gave the company 90 days to change its practices and display rivals' services in the same way it displays its own.

Google says it will review the fine and is considering an appeal; the company also defended the way it handles online shopping, saying that it connects users with advertisers "in ways that are useful for both."

"We respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today," said Google General Counsel Kent Walker.

The fine centers around Google's comparison shopping service — which has been known by names from Froogle and Google Product Search to Google Shopping — and its prominent display in related search results.

Vestager says Google "abused its market dominance ... by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors."

That behavior, Vestager said, went too far. While acknowledging that Google's strategy included a plan to make its shopping product better than anyone else's, she said that the way the company treated its rivals and "systematically" ranked its own service at or near the top of the rankings went beyond the normal scope of competition.

Google adopted the same practice in all 13 EU countries where it unveiled its shopping service, the European Commission says, from Germany and the United Kingdom in 2008 to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Poland and Sweden in late 2013.

As for the effects of Google's strategy, the Commission says that traffic to Google's comparison shopping service rose "45-fold in the United Kingdom, 35-fold in Germany, 19-fold in France, 29-fold in the Netherlands, 17-fold in Spain and 14-fold in Italy."

The Commission says that Google's rivals saw their traffic plummet — by 85 percent in the United Kingdom, 92 percent in Germany and 80 percent in France.

"These sudden drops could also not be explained by other factors," the European body adds.
Google and Cuba forge a deal about better access to the Internet for the island.