This week’s meeting, called LACNIC 25, is one of the most important gatherings of the regional Internet community. Sessions will cover a broad range of topics, including cybersecurity, IPv6 deployment, regional interconnection, and several technical training workshops.

But the significance of the event transcends the agenda. The meeting is regarded as one of several signs of ongoing change that goes beyond Cuba’s nascent telecommunications sector. The Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union (ITU) ranks Cuba lowest in the Americas in telecommunications development. But Cuban officials have cited factors such as the U.S. economic embargo and political aggression as reasons for its stunted development.

Until 2012, most Internet users on the Caribbean’s largest island had only had limited Internet connectivity via satellite. In early 2013, the Cuban government opened several cybercafes, which have become the primary point of access to the Internet for local users. The Cuban public mostly has State-controlled Internet access in schools and workplaces.

LACNIC 25 is being hosted jointly with the Cuban telecommunications company, ETECSA.

“It’s great to be hosting everyone right here in Havana!” said Jorge Villa, manager of the national university network at the Cuban Ministry of Higher Education, on the opening day of the weeklong meeting at the Havana Convention Centre.

Villa was on hand at LACNIC 23 in Lima, Peru, when LACNIC executive director Oscar Robles made the official announcement of the venue for LACNIC 25. The news was greeted with loud applause.

It is the second time that LACNIC flies in to Havana for its meetings. In 2003, the city hosted LACNIC 5.