Last week, Cuba got its first free, public WiFi hub. But as significant as that is for the formerly hermetic island nation that's in the process of normalizing relations with the U.S. and others, it may just be the beginning of a much larger coming technology revolution in the country.

Early Cautious Stages

The free public WiFi hub in Cuba, however, wasn't exactly the government's initiative. It exists courtesy of Kcho, a famed Cuban artist who set up a modest three-megabit connection at his cultural center, as we previously reported.

That Cuba allowed the relatively decent connection with the outside world to persist is definitely progress, as ComputerWorld noted that heretofore, the Cuban government restricted official Internet access for select purposes and, for general use, to the total of about five percent of the population that can afford to pay $4.50 per hour for online access through the state-run and content-filtered Internet cafes that were set up only a couple of years ago.

And the political normalization between Cuba and the U.S. appears to be a slow process. As The Atlantic noted, despite the public attention given to President Obama and Raul Castro's careful advances, the U.S. government still currently enforces a trade embargo on the country.

But despite the cautious pace of policy, easing economic sanctions has whetted investors' appetite and set their sites on the island nation, especially when it comes to technology.

Challenges and Opportunities:

Cuba's Undeveloped Infrastructure

Besides the political process, Cuba faces several practical challenges when it comes to investing in and developing Internet technology in the country. For one, there's the physical infrastructure -- outdated electrical grids, inadequate for sustaining growth in technology need to be replaced, and the same goes for the telephone grid and (nearly) nonexistent wireless network.

And that's not even to mention Cuba's telecommunications connection with the outside -- essentially an old coaxial cable that runs underwater to Jamaica and the wider world.

Such a huge lack of physical infrastructure means development of an Internet-powered economy will come slowly, in fits and starts. But it also means something close to a blank slate for investors.

As venture capitalist and co-founder of startup networking organization Mindchemy Ramphis Castro recently put it in his essay for Re/Code, Seeding a Silicon Valley in Cuba, the island nation's dearth of almost all things IT "makes it especially exciting to be a venture capitalist pondering the possibilities for funding companies in Cuba today and tomorrow."

"If VCs, particularly angel investors, can become involved soon, they will be getting in not at the proverbial ground floor but while the blueprints are being drafted."

Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of tech industry trade group CompTIA, shared a similar excitement with ComputerWorld for the once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity an open Cuba could present:

"Markets like Cuba, which will require a wholesale construction of new infrastructure, don't come along often, if ever," said Thibodeaux. "The flood of companies lining up to get in should be quite substantial."

Such companies, early on, would likely be core IT firms from the U.S., such as AT&T, HP, Verizon and Cisco, which would develop the larger infrastructure; the basics required for any further IT-based economic development.

A New, Untapped Market

Assuming a continued, relatively smooth political evolution -- which is still an assumption -- after the infrastructure is in place, the human capital and still untapped market potential inherent in Cuba is equally attractive to the tech industry.

IT education would be an immediate priority, as "near-sourcing" services for technology and business would likely be the first steps for industry investment in the country, along with all of the technology aspects associated with modern tourism. 

And while technology spending market data for Cuba is nonexistent, a population of about 11 million, mixed with a "real hunger for technology" in the population -- according to U.C. Berkeley Center for Latin American Studies chairman Harley Shaiken, also speaking to ComputerWorld -- would inevitably lead to an incredibly high growth rate for the PC and mobile device market, after initial jobs based on the new IT economy raised incomes to a point where more than the current 10 percent who own mobile phones can afford to buy consumer tech.

Still a Long, Tricky Road

Don't expect Cuba to become the next Silicon Valley just yet. While the Cuban government is appealing for more investment by international companies, and businesses are chomping at the bit, economic development from essentially scratch takes time. And that's assuming that the political climate in both the U.S. and Cuba stays stable, which is not a guarantee.

But progress has been made, and even in the early opening stages, Cuba is now on Silicon Valley's map -- not nearly the final frontier of, or so far even a certainty for the next generation of tech growth -- but more as an undiscovered country worth exploring, now that for the first time in decades, economic first contact has been established with an official political nemesis.

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