Installation of 1,630 kilometers (1,013 miles) of fiber optic cable between Cuba and Venezuela was scheduled to start on October 14, 2009, Venezuela’s Science and Technology Minister Jesse Chacon said. "This is something that we hope will be ready in two years' time," Chacon said in a statement.

The hookup will have a 640-gigabyte capacity and multiply Cuba's ability to connect by 3,000, experts from both countries say. The project, set to lay cable from near La Guaira in Venezuela's Vargas state to Siboney, outside the Cuban city of Santiago de Cuba, is expected to cost 63.4 million dollars.