U.S. urges rejection of undersea cable connection to Cuba

A U.S. government committee on Thursday urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deny an application to connect Cuba to the United States through a new undersea cable landing station to handle internet, voice and data traffic.

The U.S. government committee known as "Team Telecom" said the plan raised national security concerns because the cable-landing system in Cuba would be owned and controlled by Cuba’s state-owned telecommunications monopoly, Empresa de Telecommunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA) and would be the only direct, commercial undersea cable connection between the United States and Cuba.