HAVANA, (APP/AFP) – A week before US
President Barack Obama visits Cuba, its state telecom monopoly ETECSA announced Monday a deal with Verizon Partner Solutions to expand direct calls.
“Once implementation and testing work are completed, this initially
will allow phone service” between the neighbors, ETECSA said.
It is no small detail, since there are 11 million people in Cuba and
almost two million Cubans in the United States.
For five decades of the Cold War, calls between the neighbors
actually had to pass through a third country due to US sanctions on the Americas’ only Communist country.
At the moment, ETECSA has had one US partner, IDT Domestic Telcom,
for voice service, since 2015.
International News
Cuba in new Verizon deal for direct calls with US
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