Venezuela-Cuba undersea cable link work starts

People stand on a breakwater, with a Venezuelan flag, left, and a Cuban flag, as a specialized ship rolls out a fiber-optic cable, suspended from buoys, off La Guaira, Venezuelan coast, Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011. The cable is expected to reach Cuba in February and be operational in July.

22 January 2011 Last updated at 17:25 ET

BBC News

Work has begun on laying an underwater fibre-optic cable to link Venezuela and Cuba.

It will stretch 1,600km (1,000m) and considerably improve telephone and internet services to Cuba, which currently relies on a costly and slow internet connection via satellite.

The new connection is expected to increase data capacity 3,000 times.

The cable, laid by French company Alcatel-Lucent, is expected to be operational in July.

In a televised ceremony, divers attached the cable to the seabed to the applause of Cuban and Venezuelan officials.

Cuban officials praised the cable for breaking the country's "historic dependence [on the United States] in the sphere of telecommunications".

And Venezuelan Minister for Science and Technology Ricardo Menendez was heard shouting "Venezuela's breaking the embargo!".