HAVANA (AP) — Cuba and Google are signing a deal moving the island one step closer to having a state-of-the-art connection to the modern internet.

The American internet giant and the Cuban government were set to agree Thursday morning in Havana to create a seamless, cost-free connection between their two networks once Cuba is able to physically connect to a new undersea fiber-optic cable.

The so-called peering deal would allow Cubans to connect faster to content on Google servers, and would reduce the Cuban government's cost of connecting users to Google content.

Network owners like the Cuban telecoms monopoly Etecsa currently must pay third-party operator fees for passing traffic along to sites such as Youtube, Google Maps and Google.com.

Cuba currently has an insufficient fiber-optic connection running under the Caribbean to Venezuela.