U.S. wireless carrier AT&T is hoping to secure a mobile agreement with Cuba’s state telecommunications company, ETECSA, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Though AT&T declined to comment on the matter, a source told the Wall Street Journal discussions are underway but an agreement has yet to be reached.
AT&T is seeking a roaming agreement with ETECSA, which has a monopoly on telecommunications on the island, the report said.
The successful completion of a deal would make AT&T the third U.S. carrier to offer roaming wireless service in Cuba.
In September, Verizon became the first carrier to offer its customers roaming service in Cuba through its Pay-As-You-Go International travel option. Verizon’s roaming in Cuba comes at a cost of $2.99 per minute for voice calls and $2.05 per megabyte of data.
Sprint followed suit in November, announcing a deal with ETECSA for both direct roaming and direct long-distance interconnection services. Sprint’s roaming rates in the country run $2.49 per minute for voice calls, $1.99 per megabyte of data, 50 cents to send SMS text messages. SMS messages can be received for free.
Prepaid carriers Cricket (AT&T), Boost (Sprint) and MetroPCS (T-Mobile) also offer plans that allow calls to Cuba.
The carrier rush to Cuba comes in the context of President Obama’s 2014 decision to resume diplomatic communications with the country.
