Reuni

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CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN INITIATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF
ICT IN CUBA CANTO ETECSA July 2008
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CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN INITIATIVE The creation of
an information society is a process that requires
a high demand of ICT in daily life, in order to
meet the needs of the community in an efficient
manner, consequently achieving a higher of
standard of living for its citizen A community
that uses information technology is going to be
more efficient, more effective and more
competitive. Considering the above, Cuba
recognized early the advantages and necessity to
control and introduce ICT in daily life and to
create a culture of a society well educated in
the use of ICT.
24th ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND TRADE EXHIBITION ON
CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN
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CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN INITIATIVE The government
of Cuba has focused as one of its priorities the
development and use of ICT. To achieve this the
government has ensured a proper telecommunication
infrastructure. This commenced in 1994 with the
creation of ETECSA (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones
de Cuba) as the sole provider for the fixed and
wireless networks in the country. The
development of the telecommunication
infrastructure reached in Cuba is as a result
mainly due to the agreements made between ETECSA
and its principal technology providers such as
ERICCSON, ALCATEL-LUCENT, HUAWEI, among
others. In this manner ETECSA has as a
requirement that every agreement has a pilot
project, to ensure that the companys needs are
met.
24th ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND TRADE EXHIBITION ON
CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN
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CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN INITIATIVE The project of
using ICT in education demonstrates the impact of
ICT in Cuba. Today Cuba has approximately 3.3 MM
students that span primary and secondary studies
in 13,700 schools and around 774,000 university
students in 3,150 universities and
affiliates. All these institutions mentioned are
utilizing the ICT technologies including 146
schools especially created to deliver an
education to one student , 241 schools that have
two students and 308 that have only three
students. These institutions are primarily
located in remote mountainous areas where access
to the regular institution is most
difficult. This has been accomplished utilizing a
variety of technologies such as WiFi , WiMax,
Power Line Communication ( PLC ), DSL in most
cases utilizing a combination.
24th ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND TRADE EXHIBITION ON
CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN
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• CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN INITIATIVE
• The experienced gained in Cuba had shown us that
  their exists Key Factors that must not be ignored
  in order to successfully deploy the use of ICT
  and achieve effective connectivity. Among these
  are the following
• In the first place, the government must have as
  a priority the short term development of a set of
  measurable and achievable objectives to deliver
  Social Services to the community via ICT. ()
• In addition governments must make obligatory
  that Telecom Operators deploy the required
  infrastructure to support the levels of
  connectivity identified as well as the
  Technological Solutions to realize the
  objectives. ()
• () Without these two aspect it is impossible to
  interconnect the society in a meaningful way.

24th ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND TRADE EXHIBITION ON
CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN
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• CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN INITIATIVE
• Telecom Operators must include in their
  implementation plans the development and
  deployment of infrastructure in areas of
  difficult access that obviously are
  non-profitable but that are essential to reaching
  the level of social connectivity we are speaking
  about.
• Telecom Operators must require as a prerequisite
  the investigation and evaluation of the
  requirements of each location before entering
  into an agreement with any proven Technology
  Provider.
• The above is inherent to achieve social
  connectivity in each country and without social
  connectivity being achieved in each country, it
  is useless to talk about Connecting the
  Caribbean In addition we must make use of each
  members experiences (both the Telecom Operators
  as well as the Technology Providers) and
  implement a mechanism to share these experiences
  in a logical and opportune manner that shortest
  time possible.

24th ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND TRADE EXHIBITION ON
CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN
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CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN INITIATIVE For a successful
development and deployment of this project, it is
important to understand that the Connecting of
Societies must not be viewed as a lucrative
project but instead should be viewed as a
requirement for achieving a higher quality of
life for our citizens that depend on the
decisions we make. ETECSA once again offers its
expertise and any information that the CANTO
members may require in relation to deploying
their project in relation to the CONNECT THE
CARIBBEAN INITIATIVE.
24th ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND TRADE EXHIBITION ON
CONNECT THE CARIBBEAN