The most telling tidbit of information from President Obama's visit to Cuba thus far was this disclaimer sent in an email to reporters by Laura Haim, a White House correspondent for the French TV station Canal Plus: "Apologies all for the delay / wifi problems."

Haim's connectivity troubles aren't a surprise at all in a country in which roughly five percent of people have access to the internet, according to Freedom House, a human rights nonprofit. But, judging from media coverage of Obama's trip, those problems are about to disappear, because Silicon Valley is coming: "Google has a deal to start setting up more wifi and broadband access on the island," Obama told ABC News.

Cuba has bad internet access by design, and Google coming to the country doesn't necessarily mean the communist government there is going to change its decades-old policy of controlling people's access to information. Google or not, the Cuban people will get full access to the internet only when the Cuban government decides that they should have it.

"As long as Cuban State Telecom Monopoly, ETECSA, remains the sole or even primary provider of internet in Cuba, companies like Google will be providing limited support in the expansion of internet," Jose Luis Martinez, a spokesperson for the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba told me. "Any expansion will be solely on the Cuban government's terms, including ongoing issues with regards to censorship and retaining tight political controls."

Obama and Google's announcement—the company confirmed that it would be doing something in Cuba in a blog post published Monday—was long expected. Google's involvement in Cuba has been rumored for months now and Obama has repeatedly said that the United States's newly opened relationship with the island would be contingent on Raul Castro's regime improving internet access for its people.

New connection options in the country aren't coming from American telecom companies but from Huawei, a Chinese company that human rights organizations are quick to point out has been complicit in government surveillance programs

But months of vague promises in the media have led to no specific plans from Obama, Castro, or Google. Google's blog post, titled "Forward!", noted that Google just showed off Chromebooks and Cardboard VR, two products that are essentially useless without a strong, open internet connection. This demonstration used ETECSA connections, which is the government-run internet provider in Cuba.