Telecoms companies Nokia, AT&T and Verizon have clubbed together to lobby the US government to relax regulations that prevent them operating in Cuba.
President Obama had said last year that his administration would ease embargos that have prevented the…
Telecoms companies Nokia, AT&T and Verizon have clubbed together to lobby the US government to relax regulations that prevent them operating in Cuba.
President Obama had said last year that his administration would ease embargos that have prevented the telcos from operating in the Caribbean nation for the last 47 years.
However, according to a recent report by pro free trade lobbying organisation, Washington-based Cuba Study Group, very little has happened since Obama’s April 2009 pledge.
Under the present embargo, Nokia cannot sell its handsets to Cuba and the operators have restrictions on connecting direct-dial calls with Cuba.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Jose Martinez, head of government relations for Latin America for Nokia said: “We don’t understand why the [review of the ] regulations stopped where they did. There doesn’t seem to be a desire at the bureaucratic level to change the rules to allow cell phones.”
Cuba has the lowest mobile penetration in Latin America. As recently as 2008, about 20,000 to 30,000 people, mostly foreign diplomats and senior officials, owned mobile devices. That number has grown to 800,000 since Castro lifted a ban on most people owning them, the Cuba Study Group said.
AT&T and Verizon may be interested in setting up roaming service for US customers who visit the island as a first step into Cuba, Jose Magana, a senior analyst at Pyramid Research told Reuters.
The country of 11.4 million people could become the largest telecom market in the Caribbean, topping Puerto Rico’s US$1.6bn market, Magana said. If the market remains mostly closed, annual revenue could still reach US$400m by 2013 from the current US$80m, he said.
Establishing a foothold in Cuba could be lucrative because mobile phone penetration may increase to 80% of the population in the next four years, from 10% to 25% now, should providers be allowed to invest in the market.
