Sprint First To Offer Roaming In Cuba

• Sprint Corp S has become the first U.S.-based carrier to offer roaming services in Cuba.
• Political and economic tension has eased between Cuba and the United States.
• A trade embargo between the two countries may be lifted by Congress.

Sprint customers who visit Cuba will be able to send and receive calls and text messages through a new partnership with Cuba's state-run telecommunications monopoly, ETECSA.

The relationship between Havana and Washington D.C. has thawed over the past few years as President Barack Obama announced his intention to reestablish a relationship with the communist regime. A trade embargo is still in place between the two nations, but Obama has urged Congress to lift the trade embargo.

Sprint's CEO Marcel Claure made the announcement at a ceremony in Havana as part of a US–Cuba Business Council (USCBC) delegation to Cuba.

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"As the commercial relationship between the U.S. and Cuba continues to progress, it is expected that the number of travelers to Cuba will increase exponentially," Claure said in a statement.

Sprint noted that more than three million people from around the world will visit Cuba in 2015. Within 10 years, that number is expected to grow to more than five million.

Claure's visit to Cuba, as some would have expected, was controversial. The executive tweeted a street art drawing of what appears to be Che Guevera along with the caption "Hola Cuba. Happy to be here in Havana, Cuba."

Fox News Latino pointed out that Che was a "ruthless figure under whom hundreds of Cubans who opposed Castro were executed without a trial."