US and Cuba restores telephone connection

For the first time since 1999, calls can now be made directly from the United States to Cuba and vice versa. Photo: AFP



The United States and Cuba have re-established a direct telephone link, the Cuban state telecommunications company said, in the latest step toward normalising ties between the one-time Cold War foes.

For the first time since 1999, calls can now be made directly from the United States to Cuba and vice versa, without passing through a third country, the company, Etecsa, said.

"The re-establishment of direct communications between the United States and Cuba contributes to providing better infrastructure and better communications quality between the people of both nations," Etecsa said in its statement.

The connection was set up through a February deal signed with New Jersey-based firm IDT Domestic Telecom.

It was the first agreement signed between Cuban and American companies since the announcement on December 17 that the two countries would renew diplomatic ties.

The telephone link between the two countries has been interrupted and restored numerous times since Fidel Castro came to power in the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and began nationalising American-owned companies.

But this is the first time the connection has been restored since February 25, 1999.

Previously phone calls between the United States and Cuba had to pass through a third country, making them expensive and poor in quality.

Around two million Cuban-Americans live in the United States, and many families rely on phone calls to stay in touch across the Florida Straits. The new connection will "initially" be used only for international voice calls, but could be expanded.

The White House had announced in December that the rapprochement with Havana would include "new efforts to increase Cubans' access to communications and their ability to communicate freely".

The announcement by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro raised Cubans' hopes that they could soon have regular internet access via the United States. Cuba has one of the lowest rates of internet access in the world - just 3.4 percent of households are connected.