CUBA HAS recently begun loosening its hold over its citizens, allowing mobile phones to be imported and purchased, and PCs in the home.

With this, will come data demands, and Cuba has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to getting around the US embargo in the form of Venezuela.

According to Julian Assange from a Wikileaks.org article, documents given to the site have revealed that Cuba and Venezuela signed a confidential contract in 2006 to lay an undersea fibre-optic cable, bypassing the United States. The cable is expected to be completed by 2010.

Assange writes that the contract between the two countries has been independently verified.

This will allow the Cubans to benefit from much higher-speeds - the country currently relies heavily on high-latency satellite access.

Not only will Cuba benefit but the proposed 1,500 kilometre cable will also connect Jamaica, Haiti and Trinidad to the rest of the world via La Guaira, Venezuela.

It should be noted that Cuba is situated a mere 120 kilometres off the coast of Florida.

The work is being carried out by CVG Telecom (Corporación Venezolana de Guyana) and ETC (Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba).

This hack recently spent time in Cuba and discovered that the proliferation of mobiles is much higher than we believe in the west, with a variety of normal-people walking around and using the devices.

PCs were also readily available with access to the Internet in hotels, albeit at dial-up speeds, providing you don't mind an old woman looking over your shoulder at your mail box.

Oh and if you like a Cuban cigar - check out www.ukcigarforums.com. µ