The event took place September 10 at the Hotel Nacional, with the goal of continuing to develop projects of mutual interest and address present and future challenges in the sector.

The inauguration was attended by Rubén Ramos Arrieta, vice president of Cuba’s Chamber of Commerce; Ernesto Rodríguez Hernández, deputy minister of Communications; Mayra Arevich Marín, executive president of the Cuban telecommunications state enterprise, Etecsa; and representatives from U.S. companies such as S3, C&W Networks, Liberty Latin America, Akerman, and Transfer To.

“We discussed how the process of computerization of Cuban society is advancing,” Arevich reported, “In addition, we reaffirmed the negative impact in this arena caused by the U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade of Cuba, reinforced with the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, and also by the Cuba Internet Task Force, which seeks to obstruct efforts by Etecsa for a more computerized Cuba.

“Despite these obstacles, we continue working on the development of infrastructure to guarantee that all national entities can implement the provision of services and platforms to improve the populations’ wellbeing and economic progress,” emphasized Arevich.

For his part, Eduardo Gandarilla, vice president of sales and marketing for C&W Networks, stated that his company’s principal goal was to “continue existing collaboration between the company and Etecsa. The challenge we face is to use ICT for development. This is what Etecsa is doing with the development of telecommunications infrastructure in the country.”

IN FIGURES

- 10 agreements between Etecsa and U.S. companies implemented

- More than 60,143,000 dollars in damages to Etecsa caused by the U.S. blockade of Cuba

- 6 million Cubans have access to the internet

- 5 million cell phone lines exist in the country, including more than two million with Internet access

SOURCES: Cuban ministries of Foreign Affairs and Communications.

The service agreement will initially allow for phone call services, through direct interconnection between the two countries, and will be operational once the implementation period and technical testing requirements have been completed by both companies.

Verizon, a New York-based company, is a global communications service provider.

Directorate of Institutional Communication.

U.S. aggressin was focused not only on preventing Cuban companies from buying computer parts and equipment, but also in preventing Cubans from surfing the Internet, especially the social networks.

In October 2010, the Twitter network admitted it had blocked the sending of cell phone text messages from Cuba to its platform.

Since April 2011, the Twitter network, which has more than 100 million active users around the world, prevented Cubans from using certain tools, saying they could not have access from a banned country.

In February of this year, the financial company Syniverse stopped paying cell phone roaming charges to the Cuban telecommunications company ETECSA, one of ETECSA’s main sources of income, as it is for similar companies around the world.

Explaining that its bank could not engage in transactions with Cuba, Syniverse now owes ETECSA 2.6 million USD.

The Cuban government, with huge international support since 1992, will ask the UN General Assembly for the 20th consecutive time to end the U.S. financial, commercial, and economic blockade against the country.

According to estimates, the total amount of losses caused by the US blockade to Cuba is 9.75 billion USD.

(Prensa Latina)