© Reuters.
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. authorities committee on Thursday urged the Federal Communications Fee (FCC) to disclaim an utility to attach Cuba to the USA by way of a brand new undersea cable touchdown station to deal with web, voice and knowledge visitors.
The Justice Division-led panel often known as “Group Telecom” stated the proposal raised nationwide safety issues as a result of the cable-landing system in Cuba could be owned and managed by Cuba’s state-owned telecommunications monopoly, Empresa de Telecommunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA) and could be the one direct, industrial undersea cable connection between the USA and Cuba.
The U.S. authorities lately has been scrutinizing undersea cable connections particularly involving China. Round 300 subsea cables kind the spine of the web, carrying 99% of the world’s knowledge visitors.
Group Telecom stated Cuba “may entry delicate U.S. knowledge traversing the brand new cable section.” An FCC spokesman stated the company is reviewing the suggestions.
The present ARCOS-1 submarine cable system connects the USA with 14 nations within the Caribbean, Central America and South America and sought to increase to a touchdown station in Cojimar, Cuba.
ARCOS-1 USA cited a 2019 State Division Cuba Web Process Power that “beneficial enabling the development of latest submarine cables to Cuba.”
The corporate didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
ARCOS-1 USA stated in a 2021 submitting with the FCC that the cable would “enhance the means by way of which Cubans on the island can talk with the USA and the remainder of the world.”
Group Telecom stated it helps the “Cuban folks’s entry to an open, interoperable, safe, and dependable web” however stated the proposal poses “unacceptable dangers to U.S. nationwide safety.”
Alphabet (NASDAQ:)’s Google and Fb (NASDAQ:) dad or mum Meta beforehand deserted a proposal to make use of an undersea cable to Hong Kong, which is managed by Beijing after Group Telecom beneficial blocking that plan in 2020.
In 2020, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks known as for enhanced scrutiny of undersea cables.
