Havana , Cuba ( CNN ) -- Google 's chairman said Monday that he and other executives from the Internet search giant recently traveled to Cuba to advocate for greater access to the Internet . `` Access to the internet can bring better education , better business , and a more open , accountable government to Cuba , '' Chairman Eric Schmidt said in a statement . `` Our visit confirmed that the government recognizes some of the benefits of increasing access for Cubans , but it has not gone far enough in implementing the policy reforms needed to open the country to the web . '' Cuba has the lowest level of Internet access in the Western hemisphere . `` If Cuba is trapped in the 1950 's , the Internet of Cuba is trapped in the 1990s , '' Schmidt wrote in a blog post after visiting with three other executives from the Internet search giant to promote `` a free and open Internet . '' Schmidt said on a posting on his Google+ account that the executives had traveled to the island with a U.S. Treasury business license . Under a five-decades-old embargo , U.S. citizens need to apply for U.S. government permission to visit Cuba or face potentially hefty fines . The visit , the first by a team from Google , was not reported in Cuba 's official state media . The government tightly restricts access to the Internet but also regularly criticizes tech companies like Google for blocking certain services to users in Cuba . Cuban blogger and government critic Yoani Sanchez said the Google team met with her Friday at her apartment in Havana . On her online newspaper , she wrote that the executives complained about the slow speed of Internet connections in Cuba and restrictions on information . `` It was a night of technology without technology , '' Sanchez wrote on her site , 14ymedio . `` No one surfed the web on their mobile phone , that 's not possible in Cuba , no one thought to show us the latest doodle ( on the Google website ) . '' In 2013 , the government opened navigation centers across the island where people can access the Internet . Though users lined up , many complained that the $ 4.50 hourly cost was too steep in a country where the median salary is about $ 20 a month . In his post , Schmidt said he met with government officials and Cuban techies skirting state restrictions on connectivity . `` Cuba will have to open its political and business economy , '' Schmidt wrote . `` And the US will have to overcome our history and open the embargo . Both countries have to do something that is hard to do politically , but it will be worth it . '' In 2013 , Schmidt visited North Korea to promote greater Internet freedom there despite State Department criticisms of the trip . Cuba : U.S. using new weapon against us : spam . Cuba acts to draw more foreign investors .
`` The Internet of Cuba is trapped in the 1990s , '' Google 's Eric Schmidt writes . Cuban government tightly restricts Web access , has criticized tech firms like Google . `` A night of technology without technology , '' says blogger who met executives . Schmidt also says he met with Cuban government officials .