Cuba, Google 'deal to hike internet speed'

Google and the Cuban government have struck a deal giving Cubans faster access to the internet giant's content, two people familiar with the deal say.

Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google's parent company, will formally sign the deal on Monday morning in Havana, the two people said.

The deal allows Cubans access to a network of servers called Google Global Cache that stores content from Google-run sites like Gmail and YouTube in locations around the world. Cuba suffers from some of the world's slowest internet speeds due to a range of problems including the convoluted paths data must travel between Cuban users and servers that are often in the US.

It wasn't immediately clear if the Cuba server or servers would be on the island itself, or just closer than current ones.