HAVANA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. embargo against Cuba has severely affected the telecommunications sector in the Caribbean nation, a high-ranking official said Wednesday.
"Between April and December 2020, the U.S. blockade has caused damages to this field worth 65 million U.S. dollars," Wilfredo Gonzalez, deputy minister of telecommunications, told a press conference.
He said that due to the U.S. unilateral policy, the Cuban telecommunications company ETECSA had been restricted from accessing technologies and equipment licensed by U.S. companies.
First imposed in 1962, the embargo bars U.S. companies from doing business with Cuba and selling products containing more than 10 percent of U.S. components to the island.
The telecommunication authorities said that the U.S. embargo harms exports of services, and blocks access to websites, e-commerce platforms and the video conferencing app Zoom.
Despite the U.S. economic sanctions, 64 percent of the country's 11 million inhabitants access the internet as digital TV signal covers more than 76 percent of the island's territory. Enditem
