CUBA and the United States have re-established direct telephone links for the first time in 15 years, Cuba’s state telecommunications company Etecsa announced today.

The company said that the link would only be for phone calls initially.

It is the first agreement signed by the two countries since the announcement last December that they would renew diplomatic ties.

US citizens and Cubans will now be able to make direct calls to each other’s countries, ending the expensive present system where they pass through a third country.

According to the Miami Herald, Etecsa and its New Jersey-based US counterpart IDT Domestic Telecom had been in talks to restart international long-distance traffic between the two countries before the December announcement.

BBC Havana correspondent Will Grant said that a key part of the decision of the Obama administration to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba was to help boost telecommunications on the island, believing that it would lead to greater internet access.

A US delegation led by Daniel Sepulveda, the State Department Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs co-ordinator for international communications and information policy, will head to Havana later this month to meet their Cuban counterparts.

Cuban officials have expressed their readiness to work with US telecommunications companies — Havana Foreign Ministry official Josefina Vidal indicating such business could “be of benefit to both sides” after January’s talks.

Only an estimated 5 to 25 per cent of Cubans have any type of internet service, but Cuba has cut the price of state-run internet cafes from $4.50 (£3) an hour to $5 for over two hours.

The government plans to open more than 100 additional cafes this year.

Etecsa also launched a mobile email service Nauta.cu last year.