U.S. Visitors to Cuba in Disadvantage

Havana, Oct 20. -U.S. travelers to Cuba are in a clear disadvantage compared to their citizens from other countries, since Washington´s hostility against Havana prevents them from enjoying good communication, because of the lack of roaming deals among telephone operators.

"They can not get connected from Cuba to their own networks, because there are no direct agreements," the president of Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (ETECSA), Mayra Arevich, pointed in a statement to Prensa Latina.

"This affects U.S. visitors, because there is no problem in service with 334 operators from 34 countries that have signed contracts with ETECSA," she said.

"Not to give those people roaming services limits us, because that is an exportable resource," added Arevich in a press conference on the consequences of the U.S. blockade, which has caused ETECSA to lose 32 million dollars from May 2010 to April 2011, according to the official data offered on Wednesday.

On the significance of the damages, Arevich said they account for one-third of 90 million dollars that ETECSA invests every year, since 2006.

Talking about other damages by U.S. hostility, Arevich noted the impossibility of improving technologies because of the risk of lacking spare parts. (Prensa Latina)