Cuba first high-speed internet connection activated

Cuba has been connected to the global internet for the first time with a high-speed cable, state telecoms company Etecsa says.

The $70m (£44m) fibre-optic cable arrived from Venezuela in February 2011, but tests on the line are said to have begun only this month.

Cubans currently rely on expensive and slow satellite links to go online.

The company has already warned that high-speed browsing is unlikely to become widely accessible overnight.

Investments will first have to be made in Cuba's infrastructure, Etecsa says, so that access can be increased "gradually" and for "social purposes".

Government and research institutions are expected to be the first beneficiaries of the new connection.

Despite a number of obstacles and restrictions, though, a blogging community of both dissidents and government supporters is flourishing in Cuba.

Although it arrived in in eastern Cuba in 2011, the state telecom company had kept quiet about it until now.

The government in Havana blamed the US trade embargo for preventing a link-up to existing American underwater cables.