US carriers continued to creep into Cuba this week, as Sprint announced it has signed a direct roaming agreement with the Telecommunications Company of Cuba (ETECSA).
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Mr. Claure said Monday’s agreement was a first step and he’d look at other ways to work with the Cuban government in the future, potentially including formation of a joint venture, which was recently allowed in regulations announced in September.
Many American businesses and business owners are heading down to Havana, Cuba, today because the worldwide Trade Fair is starting up.
Sprint, just like Verizon, pushed to have its roaming service available in Cuba due to the expected visitor growth in the country within the next ten years.
Sprint customers who visit Cuba will be able to send and receive calls and text messages through a new partnership with Cuba’s state-run telecommunications monopoly, ETECSA.
This year, agreements with three Cuban banks – Banco Exterior de Cuba, Banco National de Cuba and Banco worldwide de Comercio – were signed at a session of the Russian-Cuban intergovernmental commission in Kazan.
American companies will lag behind those from Cuba’s strategic partners Venezuela, China and Russian Federation. Payment for services will be through “third countries’ banks” and without the use dollars because of the United States embargo rules.
Jodi Bond, the chamber’s vice president of the Americas, said the council was optimistic that trade will begin to flow between the US and Cuba as each country figures out how to harmonize clashing sets of byzantine regulations. Within 10 years, that number is projected to grow to more than 5 million. Alex Lee, the U.S. State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for South America & Cuba, stated at a symposium on Cuba on Fri.in NYC in that undoubtedly there’s been “a profound shift in paradigm in relation toward Cuba”.
Claure said that he sought a deal to offer roaming in Cuba following feedback from customers about not having service during visits to the country.
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“We want to see USA products as part of that handsome build-out of Cuba”, Bond said.
